Myth Quotes - Page 23

• Kafka's evocations are, rather, unconscious and almost sub-archetypal, the little-kid stuff from which myths derive; this is why we tend to call even his weirdest stories nightmarish rather than surreal.

  David Foster Wallace

  Kids, Stories, Littles

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• We are still conditioning people in this country and, indeed, all over the globe to the myth of white superiority. We are constantly being told that we don't have racism in this country anymore, but most of the people who are saying that are white. White people think it isn't happening because it isn't happening to them.

  Jane Elliott

  Country, Thinking, White

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• A middle ground might be to fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits and then, once granted, redefine the institution of marriage completely, to demand the right to marry not as a way of adhering to society's moral codes but rather to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution. [Legalizing "same-sex marriage"] is also a chance to wholly transform the definition of family in American culture.

  Michelangelo Signorile

  Sex, Fighting, Marriage Equality

  "How We Got to the Supreme Court" by Michelangelo Signorile, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 25, 2013.

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

  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

  Memories, Science, Technology

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• A 'Hitler myth' was cultivated which built on people's desire for strong leadership, and presented Hitler as an almost God-like figure. Hitler's image was laboured over in a manner not dissimilar to that of pop stars today. What he wore, what he said, what postures he adopted during speeches were all worked out carefully... Many people began to separate Hitler from the Nazi Party, enabling Hitler's popularity to remain high whilst the popularity of the Nazi Party fell.

  Alison Kitson

  Strong, Stars, Party

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• Eugenics was central to the entire Nazi enterprise, joined with romantic nativist and racist myths of the pure-bred Nordic. The emphasis on 'blood' called for a purifying of the nation's gene pool, so that Germans could regain the nobility and greatness of their genetically pure forebears.

  Alison Thompson

  Greatness, Eugenics, Blood

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• I always looked for a man to rescue me and bring me happiness. I bought into that myth, of course, and looked for my own Prince Charming.

  Linda Evans

  Men, Charming, Rescue

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• Once a poet calls his myth a myth, he prevents the reader from treating it as a reality; we use the word "myth" only for stories we ourselves cannot believe.

  Adam Kirsch

  Believe, Reality, Stories

  "The Mystic Word" by Adam Kirsch, www.newyorker.com. October 9, 2006.

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• Commentating, illustrating, description giving, adjective expert, analyzing, surmising musical myth seeking people of the universe, this is yours.

  T La Rock

  Rap, People, Giving

  "Rick Rubin, Russell Simmons: Def Jam's First 25 Years". Interview with Audie Cornish, www.npr.org. October 9, 2011.

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• As every past generation has had to disenthrall itself from an inheritance of truisms and stereotypes, so in our own time we must move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality. For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie-deliberate, contrived and dishonest-but the myth-persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Mythology distracts us everywhere.

  John F. Kennedy

  Lying, Moving, Past

  Yale University Commencement Address, delivered 11 June 1962

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• In any open question, we should argue from what we do know to what we do not know. We do know that fervent legends and stubborn myths arise easily and naturally. We do not know that dead people rise from the grave.

  Dan Barker

  People, Religion, Stubborn

  Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins (2008). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.299, Ulysses Press

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• Taste is more to do with manners than appearances. Taste is both myth and reality; it is not a style.

  Stephen Bayley

  Reality, Style, Taste

  Stephen Bayley (2000). “General Knowledge”, Booth-Clibborn

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• I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.

  Norman Granz

  Reality, Rights, Development

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• The common belief that coaches must be abusive to be successful is a myth. Research shows that if you find a task fun, you'll perform better. If more coaches took . . . a Golden Rule approach to coaching, treating their players the way they themselves would like to be treated, fewer athletes would drop out of sports in their teens, and more athletes at every level would be happier and more satisfied.

  Ralph Nader

  Sports, Fun, Athlete

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• The idea of a superior or inferior race is a myth that has been completely refuted by anthropological evidence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Race, Ideas

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• Architecture is not created by individuals. The genius sketch ... is a myth. Architecture is made by a team of committed people who work together, and in fact, success usually has more to do with dumb determination than with genius.

  Joshua Prince-Ramus

  Determination, Team, People

  "The Architect of a Different Kind of Organization" by Jena Mcgregor, www.fastcompany.com. June 1, 2005.

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• Although every organized religion works overtime to contribute its own brand of misogyny to the myth of woman-hate, woman-fear, and woman-evil, the Roman Catholic church also carries the immense power of very directly affecting women's lives everywhere by its stand against birth control and abortion, and by its use of skillful and wealthy lobbies to prevent legislative change. It is an obscenity-an all-male hierarchy, celibate or not, that presumes to rule on the lives and bodies of millions of women.

  Robin Morgan

  Fear, Hate, Evil

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• Some of us do not accept the Establishment myth that bad laws must be obeyed.

  Tom Driberg

  Law, Political, Accepting

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• As soon as a woman's primary social value could no longer be defined as the attainment of virtuous domesticity, the beauty myth redefined it as the attainment of virtuous beauty. It did so to substitute both a new consumer imperative and a new justification for economic unfairness in the workplace where the old ones had lost their hold over newly liberated women.

  Naomi Wolf

  Self Esteem, Social Values, Workplace

  Naomi Wolf (2013). “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women”, p.18, Random House

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• Spokespeople sell women the Iron Maiden and name her "Health": if public discourse were really concerned with women's health, it would turn angrily upon this aspect of the beauty myth.

  Naomi Wolf

  Self Esteem, Names, Iron

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• One of the myths propagated by the enemies of Israel is that there is an all-powerful Zionist conspiracy. That is a false accusation. Nevertheless, that AIPAC has been so successful in suppressing criticism has lent some credence to such false beliefs.

  George Soros

  Powerful, Successful, Israel

  "On Israel, America and AIPAC" by George Soros, www.nybooks.com. April 12, 2007.

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• Anticipating attacks, I should like to emphasize that I do not subscribe to the myths propagated by enemies of Israel and I am not blaming Jews for anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism predates the birth of Israel. Neither Israel's policies nor the critics of those policies should be held responsible for anti-Semitism. At the same time, I do believe that attitudes toward Israel are influenced by Israel's policies, and attitudes toward the Jewish community are influenced by the pro-Israel lobby's success in suppressing divergent views.

  George Soros

  Attitude, Believe, Israel

  "On Israel, America and AIPAC" by George Soros, www.nybooks.com. April 12, 2007.

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• For myth is at the beginning of literature, and also at its end.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Literature, Ends

  Jorge Luis Borges (1964). “Dreamtigers”, p.42, University of Texas Press

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• Myth is the nothing that is all.

  Fernando Pessoa

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• For me, there was no great myth around the movies when I was a young child. My father was very simple about the whole thing. He did not consider cinema an art. Cinema was entertainment. Literature and music were art.

  Jacques Audiard

  Art, Children, Father

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