# Quote — Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

> The white man is very clever. He came quietly with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

- 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: 162
- 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-white-man

## 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)