Quotes About Myth

All things fade and quickly turn to myth.

Socrates used to call popular beliefs "the monsters under the bed"—only useful for frightening children with.

I have been told that the German novelist Thomas Mann defined a myth (a particular kind of metaphorical narrative) as "a story about the way things never were, but always are." So, is a myth true? Literally true, no. Really true, yes.

Its central elements are seen no longer as going back to the historical Jesus, but as the product of the early Christian movement in the decades after his death. Jesus as a historical figure was not very much like the most common image of him.

The true story is vicious and multiple and untrue after all. Why do you need it? Don't ever ask for the true story.

Mary: Some call this Eve's curse, but I think that is stupid because the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam.

If they want a monster so badly they ought to be provided by one.

Some called it Eve's curse but she thought that was stupid, and the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam, who as soon as there was any trouble, blamed it all on her.

the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam, who as soon as there was any trouble, blamed it all on her.

And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend. A stick used to beat other women with.

In those timeless years between infancy and, say, seven what is has always been: in that way children inhabit the realm of myth.

Northrop] Frye was concerned mostly with literary criticism, and myths interested him as structural elements in works of literature. He used the word myth to mean story, without attaching any connotation of truth or falsehood to it; but a myth is a story of a certain kind. The myths of a culture are those stories it takes seriously—the ones that are thought to be a key to its identity.

And the vampires. You used to know where you stood with them – smelly, evil, undead – but now there are virtuous vampires and disreputable vampires, and sexy vampires and glittery vampires, and none of the old rules about them are true any more. Once you could depend on garlic, and on the rising sun, and on crucifixes. You could get rid of the vampires once and for all. But not any more.

Calling a piece of short fiction a "tale" removes it at least slightly from the realm of mundane works and days, as it evokes the world of the folk tale, the wonder tale, and the long-ago teller of tales.

The war at Troy seemed to grow in song, poetry, and story all the while. As it faded from living memory, it grew larger and larger. Men claimed descent from one or the other of the heroes, or, failing that, anyone who had fought in the war, which now assumed the stature of a clash between the gods and the titans.

I have a better internal and intuitive understanding of folklore and myth than science and technology, so in that way fantasy is easier.

Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.

If science fiction is the mythology of modern technology, then its myth is tragic.

Our technology forces us to live mythically

Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.

We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves; we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.

According to an ancient Sardinian legend, the bodies of those who are born on Christmas Eve will never dissolve into dust but are preserved until the end of time.

Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it.

God is, to me, pretty much a myth created over time to deny the idea that we're all responsible for our own actions.