“The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false.”
Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 1 : A tough mind and a tender heart
Context: The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.
Who doubts that this toughness is one of man's greatest needs? Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. 658
American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968Related quotes
“Like legend and myth, magic fades when it is unused”
hence all the old tales of elfin Kingdoms moving further and further away from our world, or that magical beings require our faith, our belief in their existence, to survive. … That is a lie. All they require is our recognition.
Goninan in Part One: The Hidden People, "Border Spirit" p. 337
The Little Country (1991)

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.

“As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind.”
Source: Pali Canon, Sutta Pitaka, Khuddaka Nikaya (Minor Collection), Dhammapada, Ch. 1: The Twin Verses, verse 13 http://books.google.com/books?id=v8oKAAAAYAAJ&q=%22As+rain+breaks+through+an+ill-thatched+house+passion+will+break+through+an+unreflecting+mind%22&pg=PA6#v=onepage
“No matter the semantics, they are of a kind and it is legend and myth that binds us all together.”
Goninan in Part One: The Hidden People, "Border Spirit" p. 336
The Little Country (1991)
Context: Legend and myth are what we use to describe what we don't comprehend. They are out attempts to make the impossible, possible — at least insofar as our spirits interact with the spirit of the world, or if that is too animistic for you, then let's use Jung's terminology and call it our racial subconscious. No matter the semantics, they are of a kind and it is legend and myth that binds us all together. … Through them, through their retellings, and through those version that are called religion while they are current, we are taught Truth and we attempt to understand Mystery.

“The Leadership legends have the air of a myth concocted to justify their place in society.”
Source: The Obelisk Gate (2016), Chapter 6 “you commit to the cause” (p. 91)
“Historical Legend and Revisionism?” 1980 lecture, reprinted in Forever in the Shadow of Hitler? New Jersey: Humanities Press, (1993), pp. 3-4.