Mariama Quotes & Sayings

The word 'happiness' does indeed have meaning, doesn't it? I shall go out in search of it. — Mariama Ba

A black African, she should have been able to fit without difficulty into a black African society, Senegal and the Ivory Coast both having experienced the same colonial power. But Africa is diverse, divided. The same country can change its character and outlook several times over, from north to south or from east to west. — Mariama Ba

Mariama finished her customer's hair, sprayed it with sheen, and, after the customer left, she said, "I'm going to get Chinese." Aisha and Halima told her what they wanted - General Tso's Chicken Very Spicy, Chicken Wings, Orange Chicken - with the quick ease of people saying what they said every day. "You want anything?" Mariama asked Ifemelu. "No, thanks," Ifemelu said. "Your hair take long. You need food," Aisha — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The dried blood from the wounds leaves dark and repulsive stains on the ground. Cleaning them up, I think of the identical nature of men: the same red blood irrigating the same organs. These organs, situated in the same places, carry out the same functions. The same remedies cure the same illnesses everywhere under the sun, whether the individual be white or black. Everything united men. Why, then, do they kill each other in ignoble wars for causes that are futile when compared with the massacre of human lives? So many devastating wars! And yet man takes himself to be a superior being. In what way is his intelligence useful to him? His intelligence begets both good and ill, more often ill than good. — Mariama Ba

Friendship has splendors that love knows not. It grows stronger when crossed, whereas obstacles kill love. Friendship resists time, which wearies and severs couples. It has heights unknown to love. — Mariama Ba

I then watched filing past and besieging me old men in search of easy revenue, young men in search of adventure to occupy their leisure. My successive refusals gave me in town the reputation of a 'lioness' or 'mad woman.' Who let loose this greedy pack of hounds after me? — Mariama Ba

A nervous breakdown waits around the corner for anyone who lets himself wallow in bitterness. Little by little, it takes over your whole being. — Mariama Ba

This is not just an abstract point. What I mean is that power has a social function. Its role is not just to enforce domination or to create winners and losers: it also organizes communities, societies, marketplaces, and the world. Hobbes explained this well. Because the urge for power is primal, he argued, it follows that humans are inherently conflictual and competitive. Left to express that nature without the presence of power to inhibit and direct them, they would fight until there was nothing left to fight for. But if they obeyed a "common power," they could put their efforts toward building society, not destroying it. "During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war," Hobbes wrote, "and such a war as is of every man against every man. — Moises Naim

I am one of those who can realize themselves fully and bloom only when they form part of a couple. Even though I understand your stand, even though I respect the choice of liberated women, I have never conceived of happiness outside of marriage. — Mariama Ba

I remain persuaded of the inevitable and necessary complementarity of man and woman. Love, imperfect as it may be in its content and expression, remains the natural link between these two beings. To love one another! If only each partner could move sincerely towards the other! If each could only melt into the other! If each would only accept the other's qualities instead of listing his faults! If each could only correct bad habits without harping on about them! — Mariama Ba

The flavour of life is love. The salt of life is also love. — Mariama Ba

[On men:] ... you never know what they're like until you get them home and take them out of their packages. — Karin Slaughter

Each profession, intellectual or manual, deserves consideration, whether it requires painful physical effort or manual dexterity, wide knowledge or or the patience of an ant. — Mariama Ba

Whatever you want, as long as it doesn't end with you trying to hit me," he teased.
"You love fighting with me, otherwise you wouldn't piss me off so much," I retorted in a more upbeat disposition. — Alicia Deters

The most humble of huts is pleasing when it is clean; the most luxurious setting offers no attraction if it is covered in dust. — Mariama Ba

Each life has its share of heroism, an obscure heroism, born of abdication, of renunciation and acceptance under the merciless whip of fate. — Mariama Ba

But it's important to acknowledge that while we may make mistakes, in the long run, we may also learn from them. — Sarah Dessen

Books saved you. Having become your refuge, they sustained you. The power of books, this marvelous invention of astute human intelligence. Various signs associated with sound: different sounds that form the word. Juxtaposition of words from which springs the idea, Thought, History, Science, Life. Sole instrument of interrelationships and of culture, unparalleled means of giving and receiving. Books knit generations together in the same continuing effort that leads to progress. They enabled you to better yourself. What society refused you, they granted. — Mariama Ba

Try explaining to them that a working woman is no less responsible for her home ... There are the children to be washed, the husband to be looked after. The working woman has a dual task, of which both halves, equally arduous, must be reconciled. How does one go about this? Therein lies the skill that makes all the difference to a home. — Mariama Ba

A woman must marry the man who loves her, but never the one she loves; that is the secret of lasting happiness. — Mariama Ba

Useless people are not improved by giving them the impression they are useful. — John Barnes

What God expects us to attempt, He also enables us to achieve. — Stephen F Olford

When we dehumanise and demonise our opponents, we abandon the possibility of peacefully resolving our differences, and seek to justify violence against them. — Nelson Mandela

I've loved every minute I've spent in television. And I've had much more failure, as traditionally measured, than success in television. I've done four shows, and only one of them was the 'West Wing.' — Aaron Sorkin

I had a compulsion to do it. — Ed Gein

My horizon lightened, I see an old woman. Who is she? Where is she from? Bent over, the ends of her boubou tied behind her, she empties into a plastic bag the left-overs of red rice. Her smiling face tells of the pleasant day she has just had. She wants to take back proof of this to her family, living perhaps in Ouakam, Thiaroye or Pikine.
Standing upright, her eyes meeting my disapproving look, she mutters between teeth reddened by cola nuts: 'Lady, death is just as beautiful as life has been. — Mariama Ba

The right kind of listener makes a difference. When someone takes the time to hear us out, something singular happens. By being interested and showing it, the listener becomes part of the tale. — Wendy Lustbader

I survived. I overcame my shyness at going alone to cinemas; I would take a seat with less and less embarrassment as the months went by. People stared at the middle-aged lady without a partner. I would feign indifference, while anger hammered against by nerves and the tears I held back welled behind my eyes. From the surprised looks, I gauged the slender liberty granted to women. — Mariama Ba

Said. "I'm fine. I have a granola bar," Ifemelu said. She had some baby carrots in a Ziploc, too, although all she had snacked on so far was her melted chocolate. "What bar?" Aisha asked. Ifemelu showed her the bar, organic, one hundred percent whole grain with real fruit. "That not food!" Halima scoffed, looking away from the television. "She here fifteen years, Halima," Aisha said, as if the length of years in America explained Ifemelu's eating of a granola bar. "Fifteen? Long time," Halima said. Aisha waited until Mariama left before pulling out her cell phone from her pocket. "Sorry, I make quick call," she said, and stepped outside. Her face had brightened when — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Humans will never be hampered as smooth bag. They just dragged and dropped upon his head and empty heart — Norman Vincent Peale

And also, one is a mother in order to understand the inexplicable. One is a mother to lighten the darkness. One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end. — Mariama Ba

Had drugs been decriminalized, crack would never have been invented and there would today be fewer addicts ... The ghettos would not be drug-and-crime-infested no-man's lands ... Colombia, Bolivia and Peru would not be suffering from narco-terror, and we would not be distorting our foreign policy because of it. — Milton Friedman

I'm kind of this control freak that likes to create his own hells before the real one can get to him — Spalding Gray

Indians do not like Indian teachers; they prefer foreigners, but there is a huge demand for Indian teachers around the world. — Bikram Choudhury

In a word, a man's success depends on feminine support. — Mariama Ba

Eternal woman: even in mourning, you want to make a strike, you want to seduce, you want to arouse interest! — Mariama Ba