Key Quotes (page 10)
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[Northrop] Frye was concerned mostly with literary criticism, and myths interested him as structural elements in works of literature. He used the word myth to mean story, without attaching any connotation of truth or falsehood to it; but a myth is a story of a certain kind. The myths of a culture are those stories it takes seriously—the ones that are thought to be a key to its identity.
Margaret Atwood
I am the twentieth century. I am the ragtime and the tango; sans-serif, clean geometry. I am the virgin's-hair whip and the cunningly detailed shackles of decadent passion. I am every lonely railway station in every capital of Europe. I am the Street, the fanciless buildings of government. the cafe-dansant, the clockwork figure, the jazz saxophone, the tourist-lady's hairpiece, the fairy's rubber breasts, the travelling clock which always tells the wrong time and chimes in different keys. I...
Thomas Pynchon
Once, in his first term, Cartwright had been bold enough to ask him why he was clever, what exercises he did to keep his brain fit. Healey had laughed."It's memory, Cartwright, old dear. Memory, the mother of the Muses... at least that's what thingummy said."Who?"You know, what's his name, Greek poet chap. Wrote the Theogony... what was he called? Begins with an 'H'."Homer?"No, dear. Not Homer, the other one. No, it's gone. Anyway. Memory, that's the key.
Stephen Fry
The Silver Key: I. In the first daysof his bondagehe had turnedto the gentle churchlyfaith endeared to himby the naivetrust of his fathers, for thence stretchedmystic avenueswhich seemed to promiseescape from life. II. Only on closer viewdid he mark the starvedfancy and beauty, thestale and prosytriteness, and theowlish gravityand grotesqueclaims of solid truthwhich reigned bore somelyand overwhelminglyamong mostof its professors; or feelto the fullthe awkwardnesswith whichit sought to...
H. P. Lovecraft
Because gratitude is the key to happiness, anything that undermines gratitude must undermine happiness. And nothing undermines gratitude as much as expectations. There is an inverse relationship between expectations and gratitude: The more expectations you have, the less gratitude you will have.
Dennis Prager