Source: Let the Great World Spin (2009), Book One: A Fear of Love
“History is facts which become lies in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.”
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
As quoted in The Observer (22 September 1957)
Context: What is history after all? History is facts which become lies in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.
Paulo Coelho book Aleph
Source: Aleph (2011)
Context: Routine has nothing to do with repetition. To become really good at anything, you have to practice and repeat, practice and repeat, until the technique becomes intuitive.
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Other
“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
“That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.”
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) French poet and critic
Tout ce qu'on dit de trop est fade et rebutant.
Canto I, l. 61
The Art of Poetry (1674)
Sarada Devi (1853–1920) Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna
Women Saints of East and West
Derrick Jensen book A Language Older Than Words
A Language Older Than Words (2000)
Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter
"Great Thought" (19 February 1938), published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (1976)
Context: There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.
