# Quote — Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

> The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.

- Author: [Chinua Achebe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe.md)
- Book: [Things Fall Apart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart.md)
- Page: 115
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#Things_Fall_Apart_(1958)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/the-land-of-the

## More from this book

> As a man danced so the drums were beaten for him.

p. 170 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/as-a-man.md)

> The Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly, so his chi agreed. And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands.

p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/the-ibo-people.md)

> "Let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest. They boast about victory over death. Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory." [...] They offered them as much of the Evil Forest as they cared to take. And to their great amazement the missionaries thanked them and burst into song.

p. 139 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/let-us-give.md)