“It is a dangerous myth that we are better historians than our predecessors. We are not.”
Source: SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
“Better the myth of happiness, than the myth of despair.”
The Cornelius Quartet, The Condition of Muzak (1977)
Source: The Mirror; or, Harlequin Everywhere (p. 786)
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Michael Moorcock 224
English writer, editor, critic 1939Related quotes
“Conscience is better served by a myth.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
(1908–2006) American economist and diplomat
Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 4, p. 111
Source: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Chapter 6 (p. 69)
“Dream is personalized myth, myth is depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic”
Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Chapter 1
Context: Dream is personalized myth, myth is depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamics of the psyche. But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problem and solutions shown are directly valid for all mankind.
“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.”
Joseph Campbell
(1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
“Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.”
Source: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), Ch. 1 "Science : Conjectures and Refutations", Section VII
“All cultures … have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths.”
Joseph Campbell
(1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Lecture 1B, 8:20
Mythology and the Individual (1997)
Context: All cultures … have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works.
Northrop Frye
(1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
Source: "Quotes", Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), p. 97
P. L. Travers
(1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist
Source: Myth, Symbol, and Meaning in Mary Poppins (2007), Ch. 2, p. 39
Context: The true fairytales … come straight out of myth; they are, as it were, minuscule reaffirmation of myths, or perhaps the myth made accessible to the local folky mind. One might say that fairytales are the myths falling into time and locality … is the same stuff, all the essentials are there, it is small, but perfect. Not minimized, not to be made digestible for children.