114 Folklore Quotes

Following is our list of folklore quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about folk songs.

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Famous Folklore Quotes

When fairy tales are written in the west, they're known as folklore. In the east, fairy tales are called religions. — Paul Henderson

What I find interesting about folklore is the dialogue it gives us with storytellers from centuries past. — Terri Windling

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes. — James Feibleman

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

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

There can be no stronger proof of the impoverishment of our contemporary culture than the popular - though profoundly mistaken - definition of myth as falsehood. — Rollo May

Like a magpie, I am a scavenger of shiny things: fairy tales, dead languages, weird folk beliefs, fascinating religions, and more. — Laini Taylor

I have a better internal and intuitive understanding of folklore and myth than science and technology, so in that way fantasy is easier. — Sarah Zettel

Today's religion will be the future's mythology. Both believed at one time by many; but proved wrong by the clever. — Steve Crocker

Tradition usually rests upon something which men did know; history is often the manufacture of the mere liar. — Jefferson Davis

People are hungry for stories. It's part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another. -Studs Terkel — Studs Terkel

Fairy tales are more than true. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

If you take different mythologies from different cultures, the names may change and the story lines may vary but there is always something in common. — Maynard James Keenan

The proverbial philosophy of a people helps us to understand more about them than any other kind of literature. — Lafcadio Hearn

All the great legends are Templates for human behavior. I would define a myth as a story that has survived. — John Boorman

Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant. — Michael Shermer

Short Folklore Quotes

  • I developed some unique software to public it on the web that I call the Folklore Project. — Andy Hertzfeld
  • When knowledge is scant or conflicting, folklore takes over. — Paul Smith
  • Common sense is the folklore of philosophy. — Antonio Gramsci
  • Liverpool Football Club is the heartland of football folklore — Brendan Rodgers
  • The first word I would remove from the folklore of journalism is the word objective. — W. Eugene Smith
  • Folklore is the boiled-down juice, or pot-likker, of human living. — Zora Neale Hurston
  • I've had a lifelong obsession with urban legends and American folklore. — Eric Kripke
  • Folklore is always changing and evolving for new audiences. — Tomm Moore
  • Folklore is artistic communication in small groups. — Dan Ben-Amos
  • I'm working on a very long series of paintings based on desert folklore. — Terri Windling

Mythology And Folklore Quotes

If you read folklore and mythology, any kind of myths, any kind of tall tales, running is always associated with freedom and vitality and youthfulness and eternal vigor. It's only in our lifetime that running has become associated with fear and pain. — Christopher McDougall

I get a lot of inspiration from research in mythology and folklore, I find that stories people told each other thousands of years ago are still relevant now. — Cassandra Clare

I've loved fairytales, folklore and mythology since I was a small child, and I think it was inevitable that they would influence my style and my development of stories. — Juliet Marillier

Folklore and mythology, as well as man's catastrophic disregard for nature, are the meat of Joseph D'Lacey's horror. But the prime cuts are always compassion and surprise. — Adam Nevill

Folk Songs Quotes

The chief contribution made by white men of the Americas to the folk songs of the world ——- the cowboy songs of Texas and the West ——- are rhythmed to the walk, the trot, and the gallop of horses. — J. Frank Dobie

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. - Louis Armstrong

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. — Louis Armstrong

But in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there. — Roger McGuinn

If songs were lines in a conversation, the situation would be fine . . . — Nick Drake

Why are black folks singing Amazing Grace which is a song about a white slaver's conversion? — Dick Gregory

What I'm doing is basically the same as Bob Dylan did with folk songs and Woody Guthrie songs, the same as folk music's always done. I'm not going to sing about ploughing, but I'll write a song that sounds like it should be about ploughing. — Justin Townes Earle

If it was never new and it never gets old, then it's a folk song — Oscar Isaac

I always knew Gordon Lightfoot was a really great songwriter, but his stuff even sounds better and better all the time. It's just so really good to me. It's just like that's what should be in a dictionary, you know, next to a really good contempory folk song, is a Gordon Lightfoot song. — John Prine

A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or who's out of work and where the job is or who's broke and where the money is or who's carrying a gun and where the peace is. — Woody Guthrie

Rock ’n roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm. It's the rhythm that gets to the kids – they're starved of music they can dance to, after all those years of crooners. — Alan Freed

Folk Art Quotes

In this perilous world, if a black boy wanted to live a halfway normal life and die a natural death he had to learn early the art of how to get along with white folks. — Benjamin E. Mays

An intelligent observation of the facts of human existence will reveal to shallow-minded folk who sneer at the use of coincidence in the arts of fiction and drama that life itself is little more than a series of coincidences. — Rafael Sabatini

One of the reasons I love using LEGO bricks is because it makes the art very relatable and accessible; folks can connect with the art almost on a different level because they have played with it or their kids have played with it. — Nathan Sawaya

I never got a pass mark in math... Just imagine - mathematicians now use my prints to illustrate their books. Funny me consorting with all these learned folks, as though I were their long lost brother. I guess they are unaware of the fact that I am ignorant about the whole thing. — M. C. Escher

Everything that has ever been called folk art has always reflected domination. — Theodor Adorno

I'm trying to inspire as many people as I can. I want the viewer to enjoy the art and I want the whole family to have something to react to. I hope that folks go home and do a bit of doodling and creating on their own. — Nathan Sawaya

Art teaches us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things. — Walter Benjamin

Folk parapsychology, an art and science designed to enable people to make effective use of their psychic talents — Isaac Bonewits

A game may be as integral to a culture, as true an object of human aesthetic appreciation, as admirable a product of creativity as a folk art or a style of music; and, as such, it is quite as worthy of study. — Michael Dummett

The book the Ziff folks sent me as an example of their art was 'Late Night VRML 2.0 with Java,' 700 pages + CD-ROM, published February 1997. I was personally acquainted with more movie stars than people who might conceivably have wanted to buy this book or any book like it. — Philip Greenspun

Folk Quotes

The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it - Aneurin Bevan

The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it — Aneurin Bevan

When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk. — Barack Obama

When you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity...you do not slam it shut behind you...you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed. — Michelle Obama

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. — H. L. Mencken

It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people — Woody Guthrie

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay small acts of kindness and love. — Peter Jackson

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. — Abraham Lincoln

The church of Jesus needs to wake up from the exile of passivity and embrace liminality and adventure or continue to remain a religious ghetto for culturally co-opted, fearful, middle-class folk. — Alan Hirsch

I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. — Muhammad Ali

I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns. — Woody Guthrie

Folk Music Quotes

Once over there [Balkans], I felt extremely patriotic. Here are these people, from 18-year-olds to military veterans, enduring real duress for the cause of peace. I don't ever want to play for a regular audience again, only military folks who are starving for music. — Sheryl Crow

Folk melodies are the embodiment of an artistic perfection of the highest order; in fact, they are models of the way in which a musical idea can be expressed with utmost perfection in terms of brevity of form and simplicity of means. — Bela Bartok

Yeah, I always listen to both classic and newer folk-influenced music. Singer-songwriter, alternative music. I also listen to more experimental dance music. — Brad Delson

You have to open your mind. I like the ability to express myself in a deep way. It's the closest music to our humanity - it's like a folk music that rises up out of a culture. — Sonny Terry

Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not the only one, but a very powerful one which is probably in the blood and feeling of the American people more than any other style of folk music. — George Gershwin

My idea of heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues. — Mark Knopfler

Everyone has their own sound, and if you're heard enough, folks will come to recognize it. Style however, is a different thing. Try to express your own ideas. It's much more difficult to do, but the rewards are there if you're good enough to pull it off. — Chet Atkins

Jazz is the folk music of the machine age. — Paul Whiteman

Folk music is a bunch of fat people. — Bob Dylan

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago. — Louis Armstrong

People Writing About Folklore

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Read quotes by Terri Windling

Terri Windling
quotes on love, terrorism

39 166
Read quotes by Paul Henderson

Paul Henderson
quotes on leadership, culture and education

22 45
Read quotes by George Orwell

George Orwell
quotes on power, socialism and war

738 9239
Read quotes by Rollo May

Rollo May
quotes on love

196 1407
Read quotes by Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor
quotes on love, life and prayer

227 357
Read quotes by Sarah Zettel

Sarah Zettel
quotes on love, friendship and order

32 383

More Folklore Quotes

A man from Iowa or Illinois will say 'I'm from the Middle West'..a Georgian or a Mississipian may admit to being merely a Southerner...but no Texan, given the opportunity, ever said otherwise than 'I'm from Texas'. — J. Frank Dobie

If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine. — Diana Wynne Jones

I detest my past, and anyone else's. I detest resignation, patience, professional heroism and obligatory beautiful feelings. I also detest the decorative arts, folklore, advertising, voices making announcements, aerodynamism, boy scouts, the smell of moth balls, events of the moment, and drunken people. — Rene Magritte

Expedition EVEREST adds a new dimension to our storytelling in Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's a thrilling adventure themed to the folklore of the mysterious yeti. — Joe Rohde

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. — Raymond Chandler

My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses. — Alan Dundes

I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions. — Alan Dundes

When I was younger, I was in love with everything about the British Isles, from British folklore to Celtic music. That was always where my passions were as a young girl, and so I studied folklore as a college student in England and Ireland. — Terri Windling

In more recent years, I've become more and more fascinated with the indigenous folklore of this land, Native American folklore, and also Hispanic folklore now that I live in the Southwest. — Terri Windling

In my introductory course, Anthropology 160, the Forms of Folklore, I try to show the students what the major and minor genres of folklore are, and how they can be analyzed. — Alan Dundes

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. — L. Frank Baum

The assumption that men were created equal, with an equal ability to make an effort and win an earthly reward, although denied every day by experience, is maintained every day by our folklore and our daydreams. — Margaret Mead

I think airports are places of huge human drama. The more I see of it, the more I am convinced that Heathrow is a secret city, with its own history, folklore and mythology. But what has surprised me is the love the people who work there feel for the place. Everyone seems to think they are plugged into something majestic. — Tony Parsons

Like legend and myth, magic fades when it is unused - hence all the old tales of elfin kingdoms moving further and further away from our world, or that magical beings require our faith, our belief in their existence, to survive. That is a lie. All they require is our recognition. — Charles de Lint

The feeling of New Orleans is so pervasive. It's such a strange and decadent and enchanted embrace that that city has. There's a dark magic present. It's no wonder that it's been the hot bed for so much vampiric folklore. The city has got an ancient quality. It's one of the oldest cities in North America. — Daniel Gillies

Why can't I love him (a 2 yr old nephew) from afar? That's how I want to love him - through pictures and folklore. — Ray Romano

The Orenda is a powerful story from history, folklore and the imagination, based on the universality of human cruelty, superstition and perseverance. Wonderful writing. — Linden MacIntyre

Rivers run through our history and folklore, and link us as a people.... We are a nation rich in rivers. — Charles Kuralt

Rivers run through our history and folklore, and link us as a people. They nourish and refresh us and provide a home for dazzling varieties of fish and wildlife and trees and plants of every sort. We are a nation rich in rivers. — Charles Kuralt

One of the best things about folklore and fairy tales is that the best fantasy is what you find right around the corner, in this world. That's where the old stuff came from. — Terri Windling

Folklore used to be passed by word of mouth, from one generation to the next; thats what makes it folklore, as opposed to, say, history, which is written down and stored in an archive. — Jill Lepore

I wasn't into Tolkien at school really. But the story is timeless, the themes that it touches on are contained in cultures all around the world. The innocent on a quest, the pretender, an inanimate object that holds evil - it's really strange that these themes are there in so many different countries' folklore. — Billy Boyd

To feel strong, to walk amongst humans with a tremendous feeling of confidence and superiority is not at all wrong. The sense of superiority in bodily strength is borne out by the long history of mankind paying homage in folklore, song and poetry to strong men — Fredrick Hatfield

I love studying folklore and legends. The stories that people passed down for a thousand years without any sort of marketing support are obviously saying something appealing about the basic human condition. — Tim Schafer

The worlds of folklore and religion were so mingled in early twentieth venture German culture that even families who didn't go to church were often deeply Christian. — Eric Metaxas

I read and learned and fretted more about Canada after I left than I ever did while I was home. I absorbed anything I could on topics that ranged from Folklore to history to political mainifestos... I ranted and raved and seethed about things beyond my control. In short I acted like a Canadian. — Will Ferguson

Forget about your folklore. I can take a few inspirations, but I can certainly not do an homage. That's not my trip. I'm a fashion vampire. I take what I need and I leave the rest. — Karl Lagerfeld

To us, basing stories on christianity is the same as basing stories on Roman mythology, Native American folklore, or unsubstantiated government conspiracies. — Richard King

A professional entertainer who allows himself to become known as a singer of folk songs is bound to have trouble with his conscience provided, of course, that he possesses one. As a performing artist, he will pride himself on timing and other techniques designed to keep the audience in his control ... his respect for genuine folklore reminds him that these changes, and these techniques, may give the audience a false picture of folk music. — Sam Hinton

One should be wary of talking on end about such subjects as learning, morality or folklore in front of elders or people of rank. It is disagreeable to listen to. — Yamamoto Tsunetomo

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