Fairy Tale Quotes - Page 12

• The good historian is like the giant of the fairy tale. He knows that wherever he catches the scent of human flesh, there his quarry lies.

  Marc Bloch

  Lying, History, Giants

  Marc Bloch (1992). “The Historian's Craft”, p.22, Manchester University Press

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• Though aware that there is nothing in the universe that suggests any purpose for humanity, one way that we can find a purpose is to study the universe by the methods of science, without consoling ourselves with fairy tales about its future, or about our own.

  Steven Weinberg

  Humanity, Atheism, Way

  Steven Weinberg (2012). “Lake Views”, p.45, Harvard University Press

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• All cities are geological; you cannot take three steps without encountering ghosts bearing all the prestige of their legends. We move within a closed landscape whose landmarks constantly draw us toward the past. Certain shifting angles, certain receding perspectives, allow us to glimpse original conceptions of space, but this vision remains fragmentary. It must be sought in the magical locales of fairy tales and surrealist writings: castles, endless walls, little forgotten bars, mammoth caverns, casino mirrors.

  Ivan Chtcheglov

  Wall, Moving, Writing

  Guy Debord, Ivan Chtcheglov, Asger Jorn, Raoul Vaneigem, Mustapha Khayati (2014). “Situationism: A Compendium”, p.5, Bread and Circuses Publishing

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• Contrary to what many may think, immortality is not a fairy tale invented to compensate for an unhappy life.

  Stephen R. Lawhead

  Happy Life, Thinking, Unhappy

  Stephen R. Lawhead (2013). “The Bone House: A Bright Empires Novel, Book 2”, p.191, Lion Fiction

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• Fairy tales are about money, marriage, and men. They are the maps and manuals that are passed down from mothers and grandmothers to help them survive.

  Marina Warner

  Mother, Men, Maps

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• What can I expect here? You know the fairy tale about the man who died, don’t you? He was waiting in Eternity to find out what the Lord had decided to do with him. He waited and waited, for one year, ten years, a hundred years. He begged and pleaded for a decision. Finally he couldn’t bear the waiting any longer. Then they said to him: ‘What do you think you’re waiting for? You’ve been in Hell for a long time already.

  Anna Seghers

  Men, Thinking, Years

  Anna Seghers (2013). “Transit”, p.186, New York Review of Books

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• Disney is a huge presence when it comes to fairy tales because he’s made of them such brilliant artifacts in terms of movie-making. But it’s very hard to ignore what he’s done to them. I'm not interested in denigrating Disney or even commenting on him very much. I'm more interested in seeing what I can do with the stories myself.

  Philip Pullman

  Stories, Done, Brilliant

  "His Grimm Materials: A Conversation With Philip Pullman". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. November 2012.

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• I wanted to avoid what some modern tellers have done, quite legitimately, to make fairy tales more like novels and short stories, to characterize the heroes and the heroines much more than they are characterized in Grimm. I like the psychological flatness of them, the fact that they're more like masks than individuals.

  Philip Pullman

  Hero, Stories, Done

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• A parent who from his own childhood experience is convinced of the value of fairy tales will have no difficulty in answering his child's questions; but an adult who thinks these tales are only a bunch of lies had better not try telling them; he won't be able to related them in a way which would enrich the child's life.

  Bruno Bettelheim

  Children, Lying, Thinking

  Bruno Bettelheim (1976). “The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales”, Knopf

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• Today there are no fairy tales for us to believe in, and this is possibly a reason for the universal prevalence of mental crack-up. Yes, if we were childish in the past, I wish we could be children once again.

  Anita Loos

  Children, Believe, Past

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• Fairy tales are loved by the child not because the imagery he finds in them conforms to what goes on within him, but because--despite all the angry, anxious thoughts in his mind to which the fairy tale gives body and specific content--these stories always result in a happy outcome, which the child cannot imagine on his own.

  Bruno Bettelheim

  Children, Anxious Thoughts, Giving

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• I dream of working with iconic directors such as Tim Burton, Baz Luhrmann, Terry Gilliam and Wes Anderson - so I'm setting my sights pretty high! My perfect role would be in a fairy-tale period piece, and I'm quite upset all the Harry Potter movies have been made as I'd love to have been in those.

  Dree Hemingway

  Dream, Sight, Perfect

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• Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Wall, Grief, Giving

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• I want to be the best mum and I want everything to be perfect - I want a fairy tale really.

  Jennifer Ellison

  Perfect, Want, Being The Best

  "Exclusive: My lover by Jennifer Ellison". www.mirror.co.uk. July 5, 2005.

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• There's no way to explain to a child that the line between good and evil isn't nearly as black and white as a fairy tale would lead you to believe. That an ordinary person can turn into a villain, under the right circumstances. That sometimes we dragon slayers do things we aren't proud of.

  Jodi Picoult

  Life, Children, Believe

  "House Rules". Book by Jodi Picoult, March 2, 2010.

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• Armchair warriors often fail - and we've been poisoned by these fairy tales

  Don Henley

  Warrior, Failing, Armchairs

  Song: The End of the Innocence, Album: The End of the Innocence

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• Children are not deceived by fairy-tales; they are often and gravely deceived by school-stories. Adults are not deceived by science-fiction ; they can be deceived by the stories in the women's magazines.

  C. S. Lewis

  Children, School, Adults

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.246, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• This is a test, isn't it? It's like choosing out of three caskets in a fairy tale. Everyone knows the rules. You never choose the gold shiny one. Or even the quite impressive silver one. What you're supposed to do is choose the dull little lead one, and then there's a flash of light and it turns into a mountain of jewels

  Sophie Kinsella

  Jewels, Light, Gold

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• Fairy tales since the beginning of recorded time, and perhaps earlier, have been “a means to conquer the terrors of mankind through metaphor.

  Jack Zipes

  Mean, Conquer, Metaphor

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• Gifts fall from heaven only in fairy tales.

  Walter Ulbricht

  Fall, Heaven, Tales

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• As for you and your heart and the things you said and didn't say, she will remember them all when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits.

  Peter S. Beagle

  Book, Heart, Men

  Peter S. Beagle (1968). “The Last Unicorn”, Roc

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• Yet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years--I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Women, Years, Lasts

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.308, A&C Black

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• Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life ... would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Night, Reality, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.62, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I don't believe in fairy tales, but I believe in you and me

  Natalia Kills

  Believe, Tales, I Believe

  Song: Wonderland, Album: Perfectionist, 2011

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• I foresee that the Andersen and Fairy Tale fashion will not last; none of these things away from general nature do.

  Mary Russell Mitford

  Fashion, Lasts, Fairytale

  Charles Boner, Mary Russell Mitford (1871). “Memoirs and Letters of Charles Boner: With Letters of Mary Russell Mitford to Him During Ten Years”, p.123

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