“The fable says that the tortoise won in the end, which is consoling, but the hare shows a good deal of speed and few signs of tiring.”

—  Northrop Frye

"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 5: Verticals Of Adam

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The fable says that the tortoise won in the end, which is consoling, but the hare shows a good deal of speed and few si…" by Northrop Frye?
Northrop Frye photo
Northrop Frye 137
Canadian literary critic and literary theorist 1912–1991

Related quotes

“We have come one hundred miles and both the tortoise and the hare have passed us laughing.”

Donald Miller (1971) American writer

Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000, Harvest House Publishers)

Margaret Atwood photo

“I could end this with a moral,
as if this were a fable about animals,
though no fables are really about animals.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: The Tent

Euclid Tsakalotos photo

“It's a difficult deal, a deal for which only time will show if it is economically viable.”

Euclid Tsakalotos (1960) Greek economist and politician

" Reluctant Tsipras fights to pass reforms in Greek parliament http://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/reluctant-tsipras-fights-to-pass-reforms-in-greek-parliament-351286" (15 July 2015)

Pythagoras photo

“Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in few!”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher
Walter Slezak photo

“You have to work years in hit shows to make people sick and tired of you, but you can accomplish this in a few weeks on television.”

Walter Slezak (1902–1983) actor

As quoted in Return of the Portable Curmudgeon (1995), edited by Jon Winokur, p. 290

Alastair Reynolds photo

“The Jugglers store patterns, but they seldom show any sign of comprehending actual content. We’re dealing with a mindless biological archiving system, a museum without a curator.”

Alastair Reynolds book Diamond Dogs

Turquoise Days, Chapter 1 (p. 177)
Short fiction, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2003)

Bertrand Russell photo

“It is said (I do not know with what truth) that a certain Hindu thinker believed the earth to rest upon an elephant. When asked what the elephant rested upon, he replied that it rested upon a tortoise. When asked what the tortoise rested upon, he said, "I am tired of this. Suppose we change the subject."”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

This illustrates the unsatisfactory character of the First-Cause argument.
"Is There a God?" (1952)
1950s

“I try to write every day. I used to try to write four times a day, minimum of three sentences each time. It doesn't sound like much but it's kinda like the hare and the tortoise. If you try that several times a day you're going to do more than three sentences, one of them is going to catch on. You're going to say "Oh boy!"”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

and then you just write. You fill up the page and the next page. But you have a certain minimum so that at the end of the day, you can say "Hey I wrote four times today, three sentences, a dozen sentences. Each sentence is maybe twenty word long. That's 240 words which is a page of copy, so at least I didn't goof off completely today. I got a page for my efforts and tomorrow it might be easier because I've moved as far as I have".
Phlogiston interview (1995)

“In Greek fable, as in Christian, it is asserted that there is a forbidden knowledge which brings nothing into world but woe. Our generation has had ample demonstration of what that knowledge is. It is knowledge of the useful rather than the true and the good, of techniques rather than of ends.”

Richard M. Weaver (1910–1963) American scholar

Source: Ideas have Consequences (1948), p. 72.

Related topics