Myth Quotes

Last night we attended an open house at Leah's high school. We had the opportunity to "attend" each of her classes for 10 minutes, to meet her teachers and have them tell us what each class was about. While waiting for her first hour English class to begin (it's a literature class) I enjoyed reading the many quotes which her teacher had posted.

Today, I decided to blog about one which dealt with "Myth." I think the quote went something like this:

"A myth is a story which is completely false, while being at the same time completely true."

I thought it was attributed to Thomas Mann, but though I searched for it many ways, I cannot find it.

I did find quotes about myths, though. Some of them are more cynical, some less, but I decided to put a few here today.

MYTHOLOGY, n. The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later. Ambrose Bierce.

Myth is an attempt to narrate a whole human experience, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep in the blood and soul, for mental explanation or description. D.H. Lawrence

Myths which are believed in tend to become true. George Orwell

It is a myth, not a mandate, a fable not a logic, and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved. Irwin Edman


None of those were the quote I was seeking, and none were from Mann. The Thomas Mann quote I could find about myth is this:

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious.

That's a little harder to parse than the one I read on the wall, and doesn't really say the same thing at all. I wrote the quote down so I could verify it, and get it exactly right, but the paper on which I wrote it is at home. When I get home tonight, maybe I will have time to do that. Meanwhile it was a fun little exercise for a Friday blog.

May your myths serve their deeper and most useful purposes.