---
title: "2 Folk Tales Quotes By Northrop Frye"
description: "2 Folk Tales quotes by Northrop Frye. Plus more from Northrop Frye and more Folk Tales sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/northrop-frye-3483_ancient_the-tricky-or-boastful-gods-of-ancient-m_1308973.png"
---

> [The tricky or boastful gods of ancient myths and primitive folk tales are characters of the same kind that turn up in Faulkner or Tennessee Williams.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-tricky-or-boastful-gods-of-ancient-myths-and-primitive-folk-tales/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/northrop-frye-3483_ancient_the-tricky-or-boastful-gods-of-ancient-m_1308973.png)

> [Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have "really happened,"or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/myths-as-compared-with-folk-tales-are-usually-in-a-special-category/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df4/northrop-frye-3483_bigger_myths-as-compared-with-folk-tales-are-us_2669332.png)

## More by Northrop Frye

> [I soon realized that a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/i-soon-realized-that-a-student-of-english-literature-who-does-not/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Our country has shown a lack of will to resist its own disintegration .. . Canada is practically the only country left in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/our-country-has-shown-a-lack-of-will-to-resist-its-own-disintegration/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [“The only thing that words can do with any real precision or accuracy is hang together. Accuracy of description in language is not possible…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-only-thing-that-words-can-do-with-any-real-precision-or-accuracy/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [The bedrock of doubt is the total nothingness of death. Death is a leveler, not because everybody dies, but because nobody understands what death…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-bedrock-of-doubt-is-the-total-nothingness-of-death-death-is-a/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Even the human heart is slightly left of centre.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/even-the-human-heart-is-slightly-left-of-centre/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. Art, like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/physics-is-an-organized-body-of-knowledge-about-nature-and-a-student/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Literature as a whole is not an aggregate of exhibits with red and blue ribbons attached to them, like a cat-show, but the range…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/literature-as-a-whole-is-not-an-aggregate-of-exhibits-with-red-and/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [One doesn't bother to believe the credible: the credible is believed already, by definition. There's no adventure of the mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/one-doesn-t-bother-to-believe-the-credible-the-credible-is-believed/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Culture's essential service to a religion is to destroy intellectual idolatry, the recurrent tendency in religion to replace the object of its worship with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/culture-s-essential-service-to-a-religion-is-to-destroy-intellectual/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [“Tendintele autoritate ale conservatorismului trebuie corectate prin mituri ale libertatii, in vreme ce un simt conservator al ordinii trebuie sa tempereze tendintele liberalismului spre…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/tendintele-autoritate-ale-conservatorismului-trebuie-corectate-prin/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Literature is a human apocalypse, man's revelation to man, and criticism is not a body of adjudications, but the awareness of that revelation, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/literature-is-a-human-apocalypse-man-s-revelation-to-man-and/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [“The particular myth that's been organizing this talk, and in a way the whole series, is the story of the Tower of Babel in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-particular-myth-that-s-been-organizing-this-talk-and-in-a-way-the/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Every human society possesses a mythology which is inherited, transmitted and diversified by literature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/every-human-society-possesses-a-mythology-which-is-inherited/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [Science begins with the world we have to live in, accepting its data and trying to explain its laws. From there, it moves toward…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/science-begins-with-the-world-we-have-to-live-in-accepting-its-data/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

> [In the world of the imagination, anything goes that's imaginatively possible, but nothing really happens.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/in-the-world-of-the-imagination-anything-goes-that-s-imaginatively/)

[Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/)

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