Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Quotes

Myth is nothing more than ancient gossip.

Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age.

I do love mythology.

History is a distillation of rumor.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Just so you know, when they say "once upon a time"....they're lying. It's not once upon a time. Its not even twice upon a time. It's hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.

It was only a phrase that went from mouth to mouth and was never quite swallowed.

The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.

For your popular rumour, unlike the rolling stone of the proverb, is one which gathers a deal of moss in its wanderings up and down.

Word spread because word will spread. Stories and secrets fight, stories win, shed new secrets, which new stories fight, and on.

Myth is, after all, the neverending story.

To begin with, I want to tell a good story, a story that people will listen to and that they'll think this is true, even if it is a story that might be defined as - as myth or legend or even fanciful.

Combine two words, Myth and History. What do you get? Mystery.

Gossip can be entertaining: occasionally, I've heard the most fascinating things about myself I never knew.

There is a legend. And to protest is daft.

A good story never dies.

Jack’s life had more to do with myth, legend, saga, and story than with political theory or political science.

History: Gossip well told.

People love a good story, even if it's a story that has very little truth to it.

A good urban legend is something that actually did happen but it got twisted in the telling over time.

A woman and a mouse, they carry a tale wherever they go.

With a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you; with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.

History has its truth; and so has legend hers.

So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one.

Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.