Quotes from Purple Hibiscus

“There are people, she once wrote, who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“The educated ones leave, the ones with the potential to right the wrongs. They leave the weak behind. The tyrants continue to reign because the weak cannot resist. Do you not see that it is a cycle? Who will break that cycle?”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“Being defiant can be a good thing sometimes," Aunty Ifeoma said. "Defiance is like marijuana - it is not a bad thing when it is used right.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“...he did not want me to seek the whys, because there are some things that happen for which we can formulate no whys, for which whys simply do not exist and, perhaps, are not necessary.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“People have crushes on priests all the time, you know. It’s exciting to have to deal with God as a rival.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“It was what Aunty Ifeoma did to my cousins, I realized then, setting higher and higher jumps for them in the way she talked to them, in what she expected of them. She did it all the time believing they would scale the rod. And they did. It was different for Jaja and me. We did not scale the rod because we believed we could, we scaled it because we were terrified that we couldn't.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“Papa sat down at the table and poured his tea from the china tea set with pink flowers on the edges. I waited for him to ask Jaja and me to take a sip, as he always did. A love sip, he called it, because you shared the little things you loved with the people you love.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“To call him humble was to make rudeness normal. Besides, humility had always seemed to him a specious thing, invented for the comfort of others; you were praised for humility by people because you did not make them feel any more lacking than they already did. It was honesty that he valued; he had always wished himself to be truly honest, and always feared that he was not”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“Military men would always overthrow one another, because they could, because they were all power drunk.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“As we drove back to Enugu, I laughed loudly,above Fela's stringent singing. I laughed because Nsukka's untarred roads coat cars with dust in the harmattan and with sticky mud in the rainy season. Because the tarred roads spring potholes like surprise presents and the air smells of hills and history and the sunlight scatters the sand and turns it into gold dust. Because Nsukka could free something deep inside your belly that would rise up to your throat and come out as freedom song. As laughter.(299)”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“The white missionaries brought us their god,” Amaka was saying. “Which was the same color as them, worshiped in their language and packaged in the boxes they made. Now that we take their god back to them, shouldn’t we at least repackage it?”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“There was a helplessness to his joy, the same kind of helplessness as in that woman’s despair.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“Eugene has to stop doing God's job. God is big enough to do his own job. If God will judge our father for choosing to follow the way of our ancestors, then let God do the judging, not Eugene.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“We did not scale the rod because we believed we could, we scaled it because we were terrified that we couldn't.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“She seemed so happy, so at peace, and I wondered how anybody around me could feel that way when liquid fire was raging inside me, when fear was mingling with hope and clutching itself around my ankles.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“I often wondered why Sister Veronica needed to understand it, when it was simply the way things were done.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“One day I said to them, Where is the God you worship? They said he was like Chukwu, that he was in the sky. I asked then, Who is the person that was killed, the person that hangs on the wood outside the mission? They said he was the son, but that the son and the father are equal. It was then that I knew that the white man was mad. The father and son are equal? Tufia! Do you not see?”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“Sometimes life begins when the marriage ends”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“I cannot control even the dreams that I have made.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“I had examined him that day, too, looking away when his eyes met mine, for signs of difference, of godlessness. I didn't see any, but I was sure they were there somewhere. They had to be.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“His letters dwell on me. I carry them around because they are long and detailed, because they remind me of my worthiness, because they tug at my feelings. Some months ago, he wrote that he did not want me to seek the whys, because there are some things that happen for which we can formulate no whys, for which whys simply do not exist and, perhaps, are not necessary. He did not mention Papa—he hardly mentions Papa in his letters—but I knew what he meant, I understood that he was stirring what I was afraid to stir myself.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“There are people, she once wrote, who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the etagere.(Opening page, 3)”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“I sat at my bedroom window after I changed; the cashew tree was so close I could reach out and pluck a leaf if it were not for the silver-colour crisscross of mosquito netting. The bell-shaped yellow fruits hung lazily, drawing buzzing bees that bumped against my window's netting. I heard Papa walk upstairs to his room for his afternoon siesta. I closed my eyes, sat still, waiting to hear him call Jaja, to hear Jaja go into his room. But after long, silent minutes, I opened my eyes and pressed my forehead against the window louvers to look outside.9”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“He spoke so effortlessly, as if his mouth were a musical instrument that just let sound out when touched, when opened.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“I want to hold his hand, but I know he will shake it free. His eyes are too full of guilt to really see me, to see his reflection in my eyes, the reflection of my hero, the brother who tried always to protect me the best he could. He will never think that he did enough, and he will never understand that I do not think he should have done more.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

“There is so much that is still silent between Jaja and me. Perhaps we will talk more with time, or perhaps we never will be able to say it all, to clothe things in words, things that have long been naked.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, quote from Purple Hibiscus

About the author

Popular quotes

“24For this my son  d was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And”
― quote from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version

“I’m really sorry, Nathan.” Her accent thickened as she stared up at him, biting her lip nervously as she wondered how much he would pout.
Nathan could go all quiet, somber, and answer her in monosyllables that drove her insane. He would glare at her.
He would watch ball games. He would come to bed late. Late. After she went to sleep. And wouldn’t give her any until the next morning. It really wasn’t fair.
“Nathan, please don’t be mad at me . . .”
“How did you hit my truck? How? It was sitting in plain view. Plain view, Sabella.” He was getting angry. He only said her full name when he was really getting angry or really, really horny. And he was not horny. Okay, this wasn’t good. She could do without for days. But she didn’t like it.
She stomped her foot, glaring back at him in irritation. “If it weren’t for you, I would have never hit it.”
“Me?” He stepped back, shaking his head fiercely. “How the hell was this my fault?”
“Because you were cutting the grass, with no shirt, in sexy jeans and boots, and seeing your tight ass striding across the lawn made me horny. You distracted me. It’s all your fault. If you dress properly things like this just would not happen, Nathan . . .”
He kissed her. It wasn’t a gentle, easy kiss. It was rough and ready and smack full of lust as he jerked her against him, pressing his cock into her belly as she gasped in pleasure.
“You are so spanked.” He picked her up, striding across the lawn, leaving her car door open, his truck abused. “Spanked, Sabella. I’m going to watch every inch of that pretty ass turn red.”
He slammed the door behind him, locking it quickly before heading for the stairs.
“Oh, spank me, Nathan,” she breathed teasingly into his ear. “Make me beg.”
He shuddered against her, threw her on the bed and proceeded to make her beg.”
― Lora Leigh, quote from Wild Card

“Betsy did not answer. She was a talker, her family always said, but sometimes when she most wanted to talk she couldn't say a word.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, quote from Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown

“I’ll never die", he said. Before I could protest, Lucas put two fingers on my lips, his smile seemed to fill the room with lights and I realized he was telling a deeper kind of truth then I’d ever known before
“You’ll live forever and being remembered by you is the only immortality I’ll ever need if I only live on as a part of you – Bianca, that’s my idea of heaven”
― Claudia Gray, quote from Afterlife

“You’re pretty sharp, Clive. Do you believe in God?”
Clive smiled. “I don’t know, should I?”
Actually, approaching the matter from a purely logical perspective, yes. All the evidence points to the existence of a creator. The single greatest body of evidence is the dismal failure of man’s desperate attempts to come up with a reasonable alternative, beginning with evolution. I’ve always looked at the universe and seen a creator as plainly as most people who look at the ocean see water.”
― Ted Dekker, quote from Blink

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.