{"quotes":[{"text":"Nothing holds back human progress as frequently as the misbelief that the words ‘impossible’ and ‘improbable’ are synonyms.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["aphorism","aphorisms","civilization","humanity","humanity","impossible","improbability","inspiration","inspirational","misbelief","misbeliefs","motivation","myth","myths","progress","synonyms","words"],"id":1603,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"I just wish this social institution [religion] wasn't based on what appears to me to be a monumental hoax built on an accumulation of customs and myths directed toward proving something that isn't true.","author":"Andy Rooney","tags":["atheism","customs","falsehood","falsehoods","hoax","institutions","myth","myths","religion"],"id":6678,"author_id":"Andy+Rooney"},{"text":"But, said Lewis, myths are lies, even though lies breathed through silver.No, said Tolkien, they are not....Just as speech is invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about truth.We have come from God (continued Tolkien), and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming a 'sub-creator' and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.You mean, asked Lewis, that the story of Christ is simply a true myth, a myth that works on us in the same way as the others, but a myth that really happened? In that case, he said, I begin to understand.","author":"Humphrey Carpenter","tags":["c-s-lewis","christ","myth","myths","splintered-light","sub-creator","tolkien","true-myth"],"id":6950,"author_id":"Humphrey+Carpenter"},{"text":"The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world's most direct and virile, that American women are pure. Negroes know far more about white Americans than that; it can almost be said, in fact, that they know about white Americans what parents—or, anyway, mothers—know about their children, and that they very often regard white Americans that way. And perhaps this attitude, held in spite of what they know and have endured, helps to explain why Negroes, on the whole, and until lately, have allowed themselves to feel so little hatred. The tendency has really been, insofar as this was possible, to dismiss white people as the slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing.","author":"James Baldwin","tags":["america","myths"],"id":7665,"author_id":"James+Baldwin"},{"text":"A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.","author":"Rollo May","tags":["existentialism","myths"],"id":11090,"author_id":"Rollo+May"},{"text":"There’s almost no evidence in literature to suggest that resistance training alters energy expenditure outside of the exercise session, significant enough to induce weight / fat /inches loss. This is especially true in younger men, or in women across all age groups. And as such, the notion that resistance training causes weight / fat / inches loss appears to be a myth and is perhaps the best kept secret in the fitness industrial complex!","author":"Dr Deepak Hiwale","tags":["exercise","fat-loss","fitness","health","inches-loss","myths","resistance-training","weightloss"],"id":13196,"author_id":"Dr+Deepak+Hiwale"},{"text":"Myths do not happen all at once. They do not spring forth whole into the world. They form slowly, rolled between the hands of time until their edges smooth, until the saying of the story gives enough weight to the words—to the memories—to keep them rolling on their own. But all stories start somewhere, and that night, as Rhy Maresh walked through the streets of London, a new myth was taking shape.","author":"V.E. Schwab","tags":["myths","rhy","stories"],"id":15012,"author_id":"V.E.+Schwab"},{"text":"The myth of Oedipus . . . Arouses powerful intellectual and emotional reactions in the adult-so much so, that it may provide a cathartic experience, as Aristotle taught all tragedy does. [A reader] may wonder why he is so deeply moved; and in responding to what he observes as his emotional reaction, ruminating about the mythical events and what these mean to him, a person may come to clarify his thoughts and feelings. With this, certain inner tensions which are the consequence of events long past may be relieved; previously unconscious material can then enter one's awareness and become accessible for conscious working through. This can happen if the observer is deeply moved emotionally by the myth, and at the sametime strongly motivated intellectually to understand it.","author":"Bruno Bettelheim","tags":["catharsis","meaning","myths","self-awareness","stories","tragedy"],"id":16793,"author_id":"Bruno+Bettelheim"},{"text":"In ancient times, people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much a thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half.","author":"Haruki Murakami","tags":["human-nature","live","love","myths"],"id":16844,"author_id":"Haruki+Murakami"},{"text":"I don't know these stories as well as they know me, I've discovered.","author":"Joan Gould","tags":["fairy-tales","myths"],"id":19568,"author_id":"Joan+Gould"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":115,"pages":12,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}