Andrew Lang Quotes

No man of sense in the whole world believes in devils any more than he does in mermaids, vampires, gorgons, hydras, naiads, dryads, nymphs, fairies, the Fountain of Youth, [or] the Philosopher's Stone. . . .

Well, first of all," said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans is not thinking we exist.

I love all of mythology and rules pertaining to all of the monsters, but I like to go the extra step.

I'm always wondering, if Bigfoot's not real, then why does this creature show up in all these different cultures? I'm always fascinated by that kind of stuff.

So you are a vampire." "I most certainly am not." He looked annoyed. "That's such a common phrase, such a cliche, and so unflattering. I suppose you believe in werewolves and aliens too. I blame television.

I remember her telling me once that rabbits were the gnomes in attendance to the Fairy Queen and that the stars were God's daisy chain. Perfect rot, of course.

Demons live in many lands, but particularly in Prussia.

Vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and eskimos.

Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion. And religion may, in a sense, be understood as popular misunderstanding of mythology. (8)

I don't believe in faeries!

If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates; the judicial proof is most complete. And with all that, who is there who believes in vampires?

People tend to associate fairies with princesses, but they couldn't be more different. Princesses have dynastic and domestic pressures, and they get parked on glass hills. Fairies don't have families. They don't clean or cook. They sip nectar from flowers and dance by the light of the moon.

I believe in elves and giants. I believe that fairy tales are nothing more than news reports of what once happened.

If the devil went about doing a tenth of what he is accused of doing he would be poor from paying the blacksmith for ox-shoes for his hooves.

Superstitious." What a strange word. If you believed in Christianity or Islam, it was called "faith". But if you believed in astrology or Friday the thirteenth it was superstition! Who had the right to call other people's belief superstition?

The first thing, the first element of a story that people hear, they believe it. Whether it's right or wrong.

I've always been curious in why different people believe the things they do and do the things they do - in the different ways that people live.

I learned that myth doesn’t mean a lie; it means a traditional story that tells you something about people and their worldview and what they hold sacred. Interesting.

Legends are best left as legends and attempts to make them real are rarely successful

Myths are stories about people who become too big for their lives temporarily, so that they crash into other lives or brush against gods. In crisis their souls are visible.

Leslie had learned two valuable things about the fae that day. They were powerful and charming -- and they ate children and puppies.

The things I encounter that I call elves or gnomes, it's just a gloss. I mean, they're small, and they have the archetype. They're more like leprechauns, and this maybe raises a racial issue.

Faeries are equally loyal and deceitful.

Every human society possesses a mythology which is inherited, transmitted and diversified by literature.

Just because you saw a vampire doesn't mean that a snowman or a Loch Ness Monster also exists.