Last Updated on July 22, 2020 by Scott M. Thomas
‘A Long Way Gone’ is a memoir by Ishmael Beah. He is an author from Sierra Leone. He decorated this book with his childhood memory. Beah separated from his family at 12 years old during the civil war in Sierra Leone. A Long Way Gone is the most important war story for this generation. Beah experiences the act of war and witnessed the killing at a very early age. When he was 16 UNICEF rescued him from the unit and put him to a rehabilitation program. This book hits you to unexpectable brutality in Sierra Leone. If you want to know the Beah’s perspective about this civil war then you are in the right place. Here we have collected some best A Long Way Gone Quotes only for you.
“Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them” – Ishmael Beah
“In the sky, there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion” – Ishmael Beah
“…children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings if given a chance” – Ishmael Beah
“Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them” – Ishmael Beah
“I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…” – Ishmael Beah
“During this lesson, teach them how to absorb knowledge as opposed to just memorizing. Teach them to become individual thinkers and not part of the majority that agrees with what is popular–afraid to stand alone in their thinking” – Ishmael Beah
“I was still hesitant to let myself let go because I still believed in the fragility of happiness” – Ishmael Beah
“We must strive to be like the moon” – Ishmael Beah
“My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen” – Ishmael Beah
“What a constant creation life was! Any day, any hour, any minute, something good or bad happened and became part of you for a lifetime” – Ishmael Beah
“My teeth became sour as I listened to his story. It was then that I understood why he was quiet all the time” – Ishmael Beah
“Sometimes we were asked to leave for war in the middle of a movie. We would come back hours later after killing many people and continue the movie as if we had just returned from intermission. we were always either at the front lines, watching a war movie, or doing drugs. There was no time to be alone or to think” – Ishmael Beah
“If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die” – Ishmael Beah
“That night for the first time in my life I realized that it is the physical presence of people and their spirits that gives a town life. With the absence of so many people, the town became scary., the night darker, and the silence unbearably agitating. Normally, the crickets and the birds sang in the evening before the sun went down. But this time they didn’t, and the darkness set in very fast. The mood wasn’t in the sky; the air was stiff as if nature itself was afraid of what was happening” – Ishmael Beah
“ONE OF THE UNSETTLING THINGS about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end” – Ishmael Beah
“This wasn’t a place for illusions; the reality here was the genuine happiness that came about from the natural magic of standing next to someone and being consumed by the fortitude in his or her humanity” – Ishmael Beah
“At night it felt as if we were walking with the moon. It followed us under thick clouds and waited for us at the other end of dark forest paths. It would disappear with sunrise but return again, hovering on our path. Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them. Under these stars, I used to hear stories, but now it seemed as if it was the sky that was telling us a story as its stars fell, violently colliding with each other. The moon hid behind clouds to avoid seeing what was happening” – Ishmael Beah
“Sometimes I closed my eyes hard to avoid thinking, but the eye of the mind refused to be closed and continued to plague me with images” – Ishmael Beah
“Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am” – Ishmael Beah
“The branches of the trees looked as if they were holding hands and bowing their heads in prayer” – Ishmael Beah
“I took out my grenade and put my fingers inside the pin. ‘Do you boys want this to be your last meal, or do you want to answer his question?” – Ishmael Beah
“I was sad to leave, but I was also pleased to have met people outside of Sierra Leone. Because if I was to get killed upon my return, I knew that memory of my existence was alive somewhere in the world” – Ishmael Beah
“I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories. Memories I sometimes wish I could wash away, even though I am aware that they are an important part of what my life is; who I am now. I stayed up all night, anxiously waiting for daylight, so that I could fully return to my new life, to rediscover happiness I had known as a child, the joy that had stayed alive inside me even through times when being alive itself became a burden. These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past” – Ishmael Beah
“We took a bowl each and started eating. He went back into the little room, and by the time he returned to the table with his own bowl of food to eat with us, we had already finished. He was shocked and looked around to see if we had done something else with the food” – Ishmael Beah
“I wanted to see my family, even if it meant dying with them” – Ishmael Beah
“These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past” – Ishmael Beah
“I was glad to see other faces and at the same time disappointed that the war had destroyed the enjoyment of the very experience of meeting people” – Ishmael Beah
“I concluded to myself that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament” – Ishmael Beah
“This isn’t your fault, you know. It really isn’t. You’ll get through this” – Ishmael Beah
“We danced and laughed in the morning. But gradually we stopped. It was as if we all knew that we could be happy for only a brief moment” – Ishmael Beah
“I knew I could never forget my past, but I wanted to stop talking about it so that I would be fully present in my new life” – Ishmael Beah
“This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you” – Ishmael Beah
“We all knew that we could grieve only for a short while in order to continue staying alive” – Ishmael Beah
“We can be rehabilitated,” I would emphasize, and point to myself as an example. I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings if given a chance” – Ishmael Beah
“It was not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it. I have been rehabilitated now, so don’t be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child” – Ishmael Beah
“We had not only lost our childhood in the war but our lives had been tainted by the same experiences that still caused us great pain and sadness” – Ishmael Beah
“One man carried his dead son. He thought the boy was still alive. The father was covered with his son’s blood, and as he ran he kept saying, “I will get you to the hospital, my boy, everything will be fine.” Perhaps it was necessary that he cling to false hopes since they kept him running from harm” – Ishmael Beah
“Children played guessing games, telling each other whether the gun fired was an AK-47, a G3, an RPG, or a machine gun” – Ishmael Beah
“My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed” – Ishmael Beah
“Most of the staff members were like that; they returned smiling after we hurt them. It was as if they had made a pact not to give up on us” – Ishmael Beah
“I was so happy that my mother, father, and two brothers had somehow found one another. Perhaps my mother and father have gotten back together, I thought” – Ishmael Beah
“I only liked talking to her because I felt that she didn’t judge me for what I had been a part of; she looked at me with the same inviting eyes and welcoming smile that said I was a child” – Ishmael Beah
“Even in the middle of the madness there remained that true and natural beauty, and it took my mind away from my current situation as I marvelled at this sight” – Ishmael Beah
“Circumstances will change and things will be fine, just hold on a little more” – Ishmael Beah
“The day seemed oddly normal. The sun peacefully sailed through the white clouds, birds sang from treetops, the trees danced to the quiet wind” – Ishmael Beah
“She was wearing her white uniform and was on her way to take on other traumatized children. It must be tough living with so many war stories. I was just living with one, mine, and it was difficult, as the nightmares about what had happened continued to torment me. Why does she do it? Why do they all do it? I thought as we went our separate ways. It was the last time I saw her. I loved her but never told her” – Ishmael Beah
“I will not be alive to see the end of this war. So, to save a place in your memories for other things, I won’t tell you my name. If you survive this war, just remember me as the old man you met. You boys should be on your way” – Ishmael Beah
“Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am” – Ishmael Beah
“For those who have no voice, silence remains the unbroken truth. And every so often, that silence is torn by a roaring.- Mende Proverb, Sierra Leone” – Ishmael Beah
“I would try desperately to think about my childhood, but I couldn’t. The war memories had formed a barrier that I had to break in order to think” – Ishmael Beah
“Sometimes night has a way of speaking to us, but we almost never listen” – Ishmael Beah
“I went to the river, dove into the water, and sat at the bottom, but my thoughts followed me” – Ishmael Beah
“She said that people complain when there is too much sun and it gets unbearably hot, and also when it rains too much or when it is cold. But, she said, no one grumbles when the moon shines. Everyone becomes happy and appreciates the moon in their own special way” – Ishmael Beah
