Quotes About Myths

Who cares,' cried Van, 'who cares about all those stale myths, what does it matter—Jove or Jehovah, spire or cupola, mosques in Moscow, or bronzes and bonzes, and clerics, and relics, and deserts with bleached camel ribs? They are merely the dust and mirages of the communal mud.

Let the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private parts.

She once said her songs were "mostly about myths, spirits, that kind of thing. Not fairies, stronger than that." Not fairies. Stronger than that: there's a fine phrase to bear in mind. Her lyrics are about the things that drive, or repulse, or empower the human spirit. Not escapism, in fact, but its exact opposite.

I believe that myths about spiritual masters as perfect human beings have done more harm than good in our society. While looking for what you may perceive as a spiritual master (and in many cases the search is a mere reflection of your own likes and dislikes) you may overlook a simple and profound teacher that could easily guide you along the spiritual path. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Our generation may be able to listen to sermons in a Joseph Campbellish way, treating Bible stories as instructional myths pointing to a deeper communal reality—that is, if we haven't replaced them with Star Wars myths or their equivalent—but don't ask us to believe with our heart and soul.

THE THING WAS AN EXPERT IN HORROR, BUT THIS HUMAN HORROR INDEED EXCEEDED ANY OTHER POSSIBLE FATE. NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS WITHOUT MERCY, BUT BECAUSE IT WAS ACTED UPON RATIONALLY AND WITHOUT COMPULSION. IT WAS A CHOICE. THE KILLING WAS UNRELATED TO THE LARGE WAR, AND IT SERVED NO OTHER PURPOSE THEN EVIL. MEN CHOSE TO DO THIS TO OTHER MEN AND INVENTED REASONS AND PLACES AND MYTHS IN ORDER TO SATISFY THEIR DESIRE IN A LOGICAL AND METHODICAL WAY.

history is scarcely capable of preserving the memory of anything except myths.

was man, mortal bloody man, who created the myths.

Politics boils down to the stories we tell ourselves. And unfortunately, we tell ourselves different stories.

They were kind of like little Stephen King stories... but these go back many hundreds of years.

historians are not often appreciated because their research tends to destroy myths. I

historians are not often appreciated because their research tends to destroy myths.

Ordinary Americans might never have liked the educated or professional classes very much, but until recently they did not widely disdain their actual learning as a bad thing in itself. It might even be too kind to call this merely "anti-rational"; it is almost reverse evolution, away from tested knowledge and backward toward folk wisdom and myths passed by word of mouth—except with all of it now sent along at the speed of electrons.

Students, well intentioned or otherwise, are poorly served by the idea that students and teachers are intellectual and social equals and that a student's opinion is as good as a professor's knowledge. Rather than disabusing young people of these myths, college too often encourages them, with the result that people end up convinced they're actually smarter than they are.

I fell in love with words in all languages, and I read everything I could find, particularly myths and legends and histories and archeology and any novels.

We obsess about celebrities. We create them, build myths around them, and then hunt them and destroy them. I don't know where it's taking us or what it means, but I know we do it. I have seen a lot of it myself.

And, as in ancient Israel, modern purity codes function politically as well as socially. The very same myths of "chosenness" that shape patriotic ideologies in the U.S.A. also shape the dreams of neo-Nazi white supremacists and the social codes of Afrikaaner apartheid. And what about the socio-symbolic apparatus of our national security state, with its "priesthood" of the security-cleared and its "holy places" surrounded by barbed wire?

One of the common myths about eating is that it is easy and instinctive. Eating is actually the most complex physical task humans engage in. It is the only physical task that utilizes all of the body's organ systems: the brain and cranial nerves; the heart and vascular system; the respiratory, endocrine, and metabolic systems; all the muscles of the body; and the entire GI tract. Swallowing alone requires the coordination of 26 muscles and six cranial nerves.

The myths record the earliest attempt at an explanation of the world and its life; the fairy tale records the free and joyful play of the imagination, opening doors through hard conditions to the spirit, which craves power, freedom, happiness; righting wrongs and redressing injuries; defeating base designs; rewarding patience and virtue; crowning true love with happiness;

We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs.

In all cultures mothers try to shape sons in their female image. For their own good. The boys resist—and the rite of passage helps this resistance. There is always symbolism involved, because symbols are a way to represent the myths that underlie every culture.

Book writing, like any good work, demonstrates that our myths about individualism are untrue. All work worth doing is necessarily dependent upon the work, goodwill, support, and kindnesses of others.

Tales of heroes end in bliss.

Myths are often entertaining, but they're never very helpful.