--- title: "9 Folk Lore Quotes by 8 authors" description: "Browse 9 Folk Lore quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Folk Lore sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/ouida-3651_creativity_imagination-without-culture-is-crippled_1570103.png" --- > [Imagination without culture is crippled and moves slowly; but it can be pure imagination, and rich also, as folk-lore will tell the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ouida/imagination-without-culture-is-crippled-and-moves-slowly-but-it-can/) [Ouida](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ouida/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/ouida-3651_creativity_imagination-without-culture-is-crippled_1570103.png) > [The truth is, my folk-lore friends and my Saturday Reviewer differ with me on the important problem of the origin of folk-tales.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-jacobs/the-truth-is-my-folk-lore-friends-and-my-saturday-reviewer-differ/) [Joseph Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-jacobs/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/93c/joseph-jacobs-23798_friends_the-truth-is-my-folk-lore-friends-and-my_3230519.jpg) > [Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-k-chesterton/folk-lore-means-that-the-soul-is-sane-but-that-the-universe-is-wild/) [Gilbert K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-k-chesterton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/gilbert-k-chesterton-223_book_folk-lore-means-that-the-soul-is-sane-bu_634756.png) > [In 1893, Miss M. Roalfe Cox brought together, in a volume of the Folk-Lore Society, no less than 345 variants of 'Cinderella'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-jacobs/in-1893-miss-m-roalfe-cox-brought-together-in-a-volume-of-the-folk/) [Joseph Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-jacobs/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/907/joseph-jacobs-23798_country_in-1893-miss-m-roalfe-cox-brought-togeth_24012.jpg) > [“Stories which have failed either to become popular folk lore or to be embalmed in old newspaper files are in great danger…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruby-elhult/stories-which-have-failed-either-to-become-popular-folk-lore-or-to-be/) [Ruby Elhult](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruby-elhult/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/516/ruby-elhult-274791_history_stories-which-have-failed-either-to-beco_2398238.jpg) > [“And even these ((the common hill fairy, the standard elf of folk-lore) are in danger of being banished into the limbo of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-spence/and-even-these-the-common-hill-fairy-the-standard-elf-of-folk-lore/) [Lewis Spence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-spence/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a72/lewis-spence-26565_business_and-even-these-the-common-hill-fairy-the_2837244.jpg) > [LORE, n. Learning --particularly that sort which is not derived from a regular course of instruction but comes of the reading of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/lore-n-learning-particularly-that-sort-which-is-not-derived-from-a/) [Ambrose Bierce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ambrose-bierce/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/ambrose-bierce-140_books_lore-n-learning-particularly-that-sort-w_1463393.jpg) > [“Can you not see," I said, "that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/can-you-not-see-i-said-that-fairy-tales-in-their-essence-are-quite/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/955/g-k-chesterton-224_fairy_can-you-not-see-i-said-that-fairy-tales_2573579.jpg) > [ “Studies \[on the origin of fairy-stories\] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit of folklorists or anthropologists: that… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-r-r-tolkien/studies-on-the-origin-of-fairy-stories-are-however-scientific-at/) [J.R.R. Tolkien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-r-r-tolkien/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3be/j-r-r-tolkien-204_anthropology_studies-on-the-origin-of-fairy-stories-a_2947633.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/#itemlist", "name": "Folk Lore Quotes", "numberOfItems": 9, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Imagination without culture is crippled and moves slowly; but it can be pure imagination, and rich also, as folk-lore will tell the vainest.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ouida" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ouida/imagination-without-culture-is-crippled-and-moves-slowly-but-it-can/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/ouida-3651_creativity_imagination-without-culture-is-crippled_1570103.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/ouida-3651_creativity_imagination-without-culture-is-crippled_1570103.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/ouida-3651_creativity_imagination-without-culture-is-crippled_1570103.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Imagination without culture is crippled and moves slowly; but it can be pure imagination, and rich also, as…” — Ouida", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The truth is, my folk-lore friends and my Saturday Reviewer differ with me on the important problem of the origin of folk-tales. They think that a tale probably originated where it was found.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joseph Jacobs" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-jacobs/the-truth-is-my-folk-lore-friends-and-my-saturday-reviewer-differ/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/93c/joseph-jacobs-23798_friends_the-truth-is-my-folk-lore-friends-and-my_3230519.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/93c/joseph-jacobs-23798_friends_the-truth-is-my-folk-lore-friends-and-my_3230519.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/93c/joseph-jacobs-23798_friends_the-truth-is-my-folk-lore-friends-and-my_3230519.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The truth is, my folk-lore friends and my Saturday Reviewer differ with me on the important problem of the…” — Joseph Jacobs", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is: what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problems of the modern novel is: what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gilbert K. Chesterton" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-k-chesterton/folk-lore-means-that-the-soul-is-sane-but-that-the-universe-is-wild/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/gilbert-k-chesterton-223_book_folk-lore-means-that-the-soul-is-sane-bu_634756.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/gilbert-k-chesterton-223_book_folk-lore-means-that-the-soul-is-sane-bu_634756.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/gilbert-k-chesterton-223_book_folk-lore-means-that-the-soul-is-sane-bu_634756.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that…” — Gilbert K. Chesterton", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In 1893, Miss M. Roalfe Cox brought together, in a volume of the Folk-Lore Society, no less than 345 variants of 'Cinderella' and kindred stories showing how widespread this particular formula was throughout Europe and how substantially identical the various incidents as reproduced in each particular country.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joseph Jacobs" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-jacobs/in-1893-miss-m-roalfe-cox-brought-together-in-a-volume-of-the-folk/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/907/joseph-jacobs-23798_country_in-1893-miss-m-roalfe-cox-brought-togeth_24012.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/907/joseph-jacobs-23798_country_in-1893-miss-m-roalfe-cox-brought-togeth_24012.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/907/joseph-jacobs-23798_country_in-1893-miss-m-roalfe-cox-brought-togeth_24012.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In 1893, Miss M. Roalfe Cox brought together, in a volume of the Folk-Lore Society, no less than 345…” — Joseph Jacobs", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Stories which have failed either to become popular folk lore or to be embalmed in old newspaper files are in great danger of oblivion. If they are saved, often it is by the merest chance. And that chance may well depend upon one individual with a treasure-story bent and a retentive memory.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ruby Elhult" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruby-elhult/stories-which-have-failed-either-to-become-popular-folk-lore-or-to-be/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/516/ruby-elhult-274791_history_stories-which-have-failed-either-to-beco_2398238.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/516/ruby-elhult-274791_history_stories-which-have-failed-either-to-beco_2398238.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/516/ruby-elhult-274791_history_stories-which-have-failed-either-to-beco_2398238.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Stories which have failed either to become popular folk lore or to be embalmed in old newspaper files are in…” — Ruby Elhult", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“And even these ((the common hill fairy, the standard elf of folk-lore) are in danger of being banished into the limbo of forgetfulness by the quite artificial fairy of juvenile literary commerce, with gauzy wing and skirts reminiscent of the ballet. It has always seemed to me extraordinary that literature has been able to create wings where none were before, for our native fairies are as wingless as ourselves. But for such an innovation the Elizabethan poets and playwrights were probably responsible - a topic which we must consider in another chapter.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lewis Spence" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-spence/and-even-these-the-common-hill-fairy-the-standard-elf-of-folk-lore/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a72/lewis-spence-26565_business_and-even-these-the-common-hill-fairy-the_2837244.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a72/lewis-spence-26565_business_and-even-these-the-common-hill-fairy-the_2837244.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a72/lewis-spence-26565_business_and-even-these-the-common-hill-fairy-the_2837244.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“And even these ((the common hill fairy, the standard elf of folk-lore) are in danger of being banished into…” — Lewis Spence", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "LORE, n. Learning --particularly that sort which is not derived from a regular course of instruction but comes of the reading of occult books, or by nature. This latter is commonly designated as folk-lore and embraces popularly myths and superstitions. In Baring-Gould's _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_ the reader will find many of these traced backward, through various people son converging lines, toward a common origin in remote antiquity. Among these are the fables of Teddy the Giant Killer, The Sleeping John Sharp Williams, Little Red Riding Hood and the Sugar Trust, Beauty and the Brisbane, The Seven Aldermen of Ephesus, Rip Van Fairbanks, and so forth. The fable with Goethe so affectingly relates under the title of The Erl- King was known two thousand years ago in Greece as The Demos and the Infant Industry. One of the most general and ancient of these myths is that Arabian tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Rockefellers.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ambrose Bierce" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/lore-n-learning-particularly-that-sort-which-is-not-derived-from-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/ambrose-bierce-140_books_lore-n-learning-particularly-that-sort-w_1463393.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/ambrose-bierce-140_books_lore-n-learning-particularly-that-sort-w_1463393.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/ambrose-bierce-140_books_lore-n-learning-particularly-that-sort-w_1463393.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“LORE, n. Learning --particularly that sort which is not derived from a regular course of instruction but…” — Ambrose Bierce", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Can you not see,\" I said, \"that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction about modern life is in its nature essentially incredible? Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is—what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problem of the modern novel is—what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "G.K. Chesterton" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/can-you-not-see-i-said-that-fairy-tales-in-their-essence-are-quite/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/955/g-k-chesterton-224_fairy_can-you-not-see-i-said-that-fairy-tales_2573579.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/955/g-k-chesterton-224_fairy_can-you-not-see-i-said-that-fairy-tales_2573579.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/955/g-k-chesterton-224_fairy_can-you-not-see-i-said-that-fairy-tales_2573579.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Can you not see,\" I said, \"that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and straightforward; but that…” — G.K. Chesterton", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit of folklorists or anthropologists: that is of people using the stories not as they were meant to be used, but as a quarry from which to dig evidence, or information, about matters in which they are interested. ...with regard to fairy stories, I feel that it is more interesting, and also in its way more difficult, to consider what they are, what they have become for us, and what values the long alchemic processes of time have produced in them. In Dasent's words I would say: 'We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones of the ox out of which it has been boiled.' Such stories have now a mythical or total (unanalysable) effect, an effect quite independent of the findings of Comparative Folk-lore, and one which it cannot spoil or explain; they open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "J.R.R. Tolkien" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-r-r-tolkien/studies-on-the-origin-of-fairy-stories-are-however-scientific-at/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3be/j-r-r-tolkien-204_anthropology_studies-on-the-origin-of-fairy-stories-a_2947633.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3be/j-r-r-tolkien-204_anthropology_studies-on-the-origin-of-fairy-stories-a_2947633.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3be/j-r-r-tolkien-204_anthropology_studies-on-the-origin-of-fairy-stories-a_2947633.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Studies [on the origin of fairy-stories] are, however, scientific (at least in intent); they are the pursuit…” — J.R.R. Tolkien", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/", "name": "Folk Lore Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/ouida-3651_creativity_imagination-without-culture-is-crippled_1570103.png" }, "description": "Browse 9 Folk Lore quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Folk Lore sayings and thoughts.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Folk Lore Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/folk-lore/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```