Literature Quotes

Books change lives. Authors and readers reflect on the power of the written word.

12844 quotes

W
"Stories endure because they contain truths that facts cannot capture."
Wendy Doniger
W
"Language itself is mythological; words carry hidden stories."
Wendy Doniger
W
"The written word preserves and transforms human experience."
Wendy Doniger
W
"The relationship between reader and text is always dialogical."
Wendy Doniger
M
"The sacred text is a mirror reflecting the reader's deepest self."
Mircea Eliade
C
"To study literature is not to study individual works but interpretive traditions."
Clifford Geertz
P
"Myth carries truth that facts alone cannot convey."
Pierre Clastres
P
"The written word fixes meaning; speech allows it to breathe."
Pierre Clastres
J
"Mythology is not false history; it is a way of talking about human concerns and values."
Jonathan Z. Smith
M
"Myths are not lies; they are metaphors for universal human experiences."
Mircea Eliade
M
"To understand mythology is to understand the human condition itself."
Mircea Eliade
M
"All human cultures create myths to explain the sacred origins of existence."
Mircea Eliade
E
"Myth is the language through which societies express their deepest values and anxieties."
Edmund Leach
E
"The study of mythology reveals the hidden assumptions of a society."
Edmund Leach
P
"The written word transforms living speech into something fixed and dead."
Pierre Clastres
P
"Literature is the conversation across time between human hearts."
Pierre Clastres
B
"Language embodies the wisdom and worldview of a culture"
Bronislaw Malinowski
C
"All ethnography is a kind of fiction in the sense that it is something made, something constructed."
Clifford Geertz
C
"Humans are storytelling animals who make sense of their lives through narrative."
Clifford Geertz
G
"Literature reflects the patterns of living"
Gregory Bateson
B
"In oral cultures, memory is sacred responsibility and art form combined."
Bronislaw Malinowski
B
"Myth is not false narrative; it is narrative that illuminates truth beyond facts."
Bronislaw Malinowski
A
"Literature preserves the soul of culture."
Alfred Kroeber
A
"Literature is the mirror of the soul."
Alfred Kroeber
C
"Stories are not just entertainment; they are how cultures preserve and transmit their deepest values and truths."
Clifford Geertz
G
"Stories are the currency of understanding."
Gregory Bateson
O
"Literature is the mirror of the soul."
Oswald Spengler
O
"Literature preserves the human spirit."
Oswald Spengler
G
"Literature preserves the wisdom of how others have lived and learned."
Gregory Bateson
B
"The literature of a people contains their deepest fears and highest aspirations."
Bronislaw Malinowski