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The need to call this thing “good� and this thing “bad,� this thing “white� and this thing “black,� was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else.
Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.�
“When one bird stops, the other one starts. Each time their song gets louder, shriller. Why do you think that is?� “Uncle, trade is the only reason we’re here. If you want the British out of your village, you have to—� “What you cannot hear, Quey, is the third bird. She is quiet, quiet, listening to the male birds get louder and louder and louder still. And when they have sung their voices out, then and only then will she speak up. Then and only then will she choose the man whose song she liked better. For now, she sits, and lets them argue: who will be the better partner, who will give her
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There should be no room in your life for regret. If in the moment of doing you felt clarity, you felt certainty, then why feel regret later?�
“We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there, you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.�
