Janvier Chouteu-Chando Quotes - Page 2

Writers are the most pathetic souls when it comes to expressing their own feelings. Their personalities are as complex as the characters they weave.

The vicissitude of life teaches us about our limitations in a world with no guarantees and permanence.

...At the end of the day, what matters is our faith in humanity...

The Cameroonian soul is genuine. It is noble, and it embodies humanism.

… a person who tries to use reasoning to explain faith gets lost in the wilderness of incomprehension.

In your selflessness pursuit of things higher than yourself, you appear selfish or inconsiderate to those who truly love you and who have cared deeply about you from the first day you came into their lives.

He learned...never to show his anger or hatred against a stronger adversary, for fear of being crushed.

A land is precious, but ours is to be revered.

...Never opt for war, no matter how simple it may seem, especially when you know that peace is achievable, even if achieving that peace entails going through a complicated and protracted process,

Remember these, Sons! Truth presented with tenderness enriches the soul of man and enhances humanity in the process. A Franco-Cameroonian relation based on truth and nurtured with tenderness will be to the benefit not only of Kamerun and France, but also of mankind as a whole.

...political realism is the way forward for any system that is genuinely for humanity or for the interest and advancement of the people of this world.

Obsessive love wears down both its target and the obsessor.

The good shall prevail in the end, the truth shall be the rule and the Cameroonian soul shall be free,” Hans said in an emotion-choked voice, “However, we should never lose our heads; we should always be prepared to forgive all the repentant souls.

Time alone can nourish or erode our emotions.

...No man is foolish when his friend betrays him because a man’s world is most serene when he has people to trust and call friends. After all, is it not often said that a friend is another self?

No true...father would be unconcerned about discord in his family that may cause it to disintegrate in his absence...

...A legendary leader distinguishes himself as someone who gets ahead of his people from an impasse and futile general consensus, and then finds new grounds that constitute the base from which a unique course of his people’s destiny is charted...

A revolutionary who is out to defeat his enemies could use their weapons, but not their rules.

Nothing crushes the soul of a father more than the loss of the beloved son he failed to lavish his love on.

Most of our brains are out, but it is good what they did for themselves by leaving this country. They are Cameroon’s reserve for development, for the day that this country shall be free. Your late father was an intelligent man. He was even more than that. He was a sage. He once said to me that the intelligent Bamilekés are those who have sought a better future for themselves and for their families in British Cameroons. He was right. They have not been brainwashed as much as their francophone brothers have. If he were alive today, I am sure he would have judged that the intelligent Cameroonians are those who have sought refuge out of Cameroon.

So, you see; you have the soul of a missionary, the heart of a revolutionary and the mind of a reformer. But what are you to yourself and the family and friends who will always be there for you?

A writer needs a partner who can act as fuel to his artistic mind, yet has the great ability to sober him up and help him be in sync with the non-artistic part of his soul.

The narrow-minded find it convenient to create stereotypes, and then try to fit everybody, everything and every situation into those stereotypes.

Son, it is bad for a man to be condemned by his children, more so by the sons he cherishes.

Fear is a basic human instinct and an indicator of the gravity of a situation. It becomes an asset if it is effectively controlled. It becomes a weakness for a man if he lets it prevail over him.

I think preconceived ideas or prejudgments are meant to give us an edge whenever we are dealing with others we don’t know or haven’t made the effort to understand.

When singers, actors or artists touch on sorrow, they are trying to give comfort to aggrieved souls by giving some meaning to their sorrows. The job of the singer, actor or artists ,in general, is to make us comfortable with our feelings or emotions―be it pain, hurt, anger, hatred, sadness, pleasure, love, cheerfulness or joy.

Politicians like the effect of alcohol because it makes them feel important.

Hope is soothing, but it can become deceptive if we cling to it as the last resort against reality.

…the truest feeling of happiness is the security that comes with being loved.

The people are like an audience watching a drama. They have characters whose sides they chose even before the start of the show, but they know little or nothing about the people behind the stage―the manipulators.

…reality is the make-believe of the majority that can only thrive in conformity.

… there is no permanence or guarantee in this life.

Where else can we find happiness for a day other than from something that can offer momentary relief, something like the booze?

We still need to give our best to life even if we do not understand the purpose of our existence on earth.

...the depth or humaneness of our love depends on the wideness of our souls.

The writer is the cursed artist of the soul. The expression of his art is a reflection of his quest to understand man by unraveling the mysteries that have been haunting humankind from time immemorial. In the end of his journey to understand man, the writer becomes more human even though his soul ends up finding less peace.

Our love for our country is worth nothing if it deprives us of our sense of humanity, if it destroys positive consensus.

…our recollections bring out our joyful smiles, but hardly make us chortle or guffaw; our recollections often leave imprints on our faces that show our regrets, but they hardly produce sounds that echo the depth of those regrets.

At what point is normal natural?

The basis of love that most people share is the intimacy they developed with their partners, the intensity of their attraction, or the similarity of their thought patterns.

Human ties are the greatest distorters of reality because they tend to conceal man’s worst selfish instincts.

Most people live lives that are full of mysteries, lives whose ultimate purpose we may never really understand. But for the sake of serenity, we must believe in life’s nobleness.

... People who are the spices of this world are the natural souls with instincts and impulses that have not been pruned by evolution and civilization.

Life is a mighty joke that is not meant to be funny.

Sometimes, our pride compels us to engage in costly wars when a true commitment to a compromising peace would have been the best course to pursue.

Don’t be afraid of those failures that do not lead to a loss of life or that do not incapacitate people.

Hold onto your creativity, that idealism that is rooted in some degree of innocence and a firm belief in something finer than the things we already have.

…blissfulness is the summit of contentment…

It was one thing to be fooled, and another thing to be taken for a fool all the time.

A man who does not honor the company of his true friends will never see the light of true love.

It is better for a realist to bend his will and ethics to accommodate a true friend than it is for him to stick to his principles that may turn the friend into an adversary.

Never allow yourself to be sapped of your extraordinary energy that is the necessary ingredient for creating something new and progressive.

...We find our greatest peace when we embrace something that gives meaning to our lives. Often, it is love for somebody or something we can give up our lives for, or somebody or something that we are sure will never betray us. That love could be for a partner, for our offspring, for a country or for a belief...

...No reformer is worthy of the name if he fails to be the ultimate pacesetter in his own reform drive...

Take a stand that reflects the widest horizons of your soul if you don’t want to be a slave to external powers.

A woman’s love is all a man should expect from his wife. That love could be translated into so many positive things, especially if it is reciprocated.

Singers, actors or artists who touch on sorrow are trying to give comfort to aggrieved souls by giving some meaning to their sorrows.

Huh! Mankind always comes up with ideas to make up for the follies of the status quo. But what happens if those ideas are inflexible and fail to respond to the changing times. They end up betraying the people who believed in them.

In dealing with others, man is inherently a slave to his preconceptions, to the stereotypes he became familiar with that made life easier for him to comprehend.