I fear nothing when I am doing right,’ said Jack.’Then,’ said the lady in the red cap, ‘you are one of those who slay giants.

Fairy tales are not real. However, myths are the historical notes of those who were much wiser than ourselves. We therefore have no right to judge legends; lest we dare challenge demigods and angels.

Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make. If men were ever in a state...

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill...

As she put it, she knew of nothing so ravishing as having a child whom she could whip whenever she was in a bad mood.(“The Queen Fantasque”)

We’re a couple of travelers!” I called up to her. “I’m Briony, and this is Ella!””Grammy said I ought not to talk to strangers!” she called back.”We’re not strangers!” Ella shouted. “We’re with the union!”I cut her a look and mouthed, Union?, which was silly with this other girl out of earshot. Ella shrugged.There was...

It’s just that, right now, I want to hear you promise me that if we do run out of time and I go mad, like Miranda, it ends with me. The curse ends here, because our baby will be safe. You will make that happen. Isn’t that so?”It took him a minute. “Yes,” he said...

Plus, I happened to be a history nerd. Why else would I be interested in a guy born in the year 519?

Leo, that’s Snow White,” Piper said.

There were lots of things in this lifetime that I’d doubted, precious little I’d known for sure. But in that moment, I knew I would save her, or die trying.

love is an invisible game, its something which you feel more and see less and what you feel you imagine it’s real but you know it’s just a blind view, it’s just an illusion, a fancy lie, it’s just an invisible game.

He was furious with himself for having lived these last days on a wish. On a lie. A kiss does not make the future. Love alone does not make a life.

Fairy tales are such evil stories for young children. Every time I’m in a mess I expect a long-haired posh-speaking man to come trotting into my life (on a horse of course, literally trotting himself…) Then you realize you don’t want a long-haired posh-speaking man trotting into your life because he’s the one who put...

If this were a fairy tale, this would be the part where the fishboy appears and Diana shoots him through the heart. Because he is a tragic hero, he’s our fucking Gatsby, and he lived for his fish and he has to die for his fish. He would never let my fake authority, condoning his...

Fairy tales begin with conflict because we all begin our lives with conflict. We are all misfit for the world, and somehow we must fit in, fit in with other people, and thus we must invent or find the means through communication to satisfy as well as resolve conflicting desires and instincts.

But as she continued and finished her tale, I could tell that her heart was elsewhere, and when she excused herself to go to bed, she left without saying good night. After that, the princesses in her stories were always beautiful. Always.

I believe that our lives, just like fairy tales – the stories that have been written by us humans, through our own experiences of living – will always have a Hero and a Heroine, a Fairy Godmother and a Wicked Witch.

How crazy it would be if the moon did spin and the earth stood still and the sun went dim!How absolutely ludicrous if snakes could walk and kids could fly and mimes did talk!How silly it would be if the nights were tan and the mornings green and the sun cyan!How totally ridiculous if horses...

a gang of unpredictable ruffians by day who turned to enthralling storytellers after dark. “I would sometimes join them, and listen for a great part of the night to some of the finest fairy tales and most romantic legends it has ever been my fortune to hear.

Princess, princess, youngest daughter,Open up and let me in!Or else your promise by the waterIsn’t worth a rusty pin.Keep your promise, royal daughter,Open up and let me in!

Everything that ever happened is just stories now, Earl. But it was all very real to people while it was happening. Wasn’t it?

It is our responsibility to keep telling these tales–to tell them in a way that they teach and entertain and give meaning to our lives,’ he [Jim] said later. ‘This is not merely an obligation, it’s something we must do because we love doing it.

Hammer”, I finished lamely, as he waited patiently for my thoughts to find their voice, “we have got to find better words for the things we have in our hearts.””Words seem to be weak things,” he murmured into my hair, and I could only hope our hearts would prove stronger.

Science has never killed or persecuted a single person for doubting or denying its teaching, and most of these teaching have been true; but religion has murdered millions for doubting or denying her dogmas and most of these dogmas have been false.All stories about gods and devils, of heavens and hells, as they do not...

There is the great lesson of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.

Since these wonder tales have been with us for thousands of years and have undergone so many different changes in the oral tradition, it is difficult to determine the ideological intention of the narrator, and when we disregard the narrator’s intention, it is often difficult to reconstruct (and/or deconstruct) the ideological meaning of a tale....

Because, no matter how old we get, we always need to believe in fairytales.

There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire.

You deserved it.

Fairy tales are rife with transformation — from beast to handsome prince, from dirty scullery maid to well-dressed princess. It is perhaps no coincidence that nature in the Cinderella stories facilitates transformation, for nature itself is a changeable thing, from season to season, from a sunny day to rain, from an egg to a flying...

Creators of literary fairy tales from the 17th-century onward include writers whose works are still widely read today: Charles Perrault (17th-century France), Hans Christian Andersen (19th-century Denmark), George Macdonald and Oscar Wilde (19th-century England). The Brothers Grimm (19th-century Germany) blurred the line between oral and literary tales by presenting their German “household tales” as though...

…she has been bewitched by a wicked sorceress, and will not regain her beauty until she is my wife.”Does she say so? Well if you believe that you may drink cold water and think it bacon’.

If I’m honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.

The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.

If our life is ever really as beautiful as a fairy tale, we shall have to remember that all the beauty of a fairy tale lies in this: that the prince has a wonder which just stops short of being fear. If he is afraid of the giant, there is an end of him; but...

The tales of Elfland do not stand or fall on their actuality but on their truthfulness, their speaking to the human condition, the longings we all have for the Faerie Other.

Man, Grandma, what big hair you have.””The better to style with, my dear.

…Myths aren’t fairy tales or legends—they’re an honest attempt to explain mysteries…

If I were to lock you up in a dungeon, I guarantee you would not be bored.

Mrs. Pott’s beady black eyes narrowed,”Do you know how many glass slippers I have to stitch when I get home? There’s a Mad Hatter serenading a toaster as we speak. There could be mayhem wreaking havoc all over the love in New Gotham, granted what thankless ingrates you are. But here I am! I’ve taken...

Though it’s fearful, Though it’s deep, though it’s dark And though you may lose the path, Though you may encounter wolves, You can’t just act, You have to listen. you can’t just act, You have to think. Though it’s dark, There are always wolves, There are always spells, There are always beans, Or a giant...

It dawned on her as she grew older, that fairy tales instilled false hopes in people, and that no white knights existed in this world. The mothers should be well aware of that aspect of reality, so why they fed their daughters with the same crap for centuries baffled her.

Yesterday’s fairy tale is today’s fact. The magician is only one step ahead of his audience.

Two forces create eternity – a fairy tale and a dream from the fairy tale.

[…] and the pea was put in the museum, where it can still be seen, if no one has stolen it.

The fairy tale emanates from specific struggles to humanize bestial and barbaric forces, which have terrorized our minds and communities in concrete ways, threatening to destroy free will and human compassion. The fairy tale sets out to conquer this concrete terror through metaphors.

There’s a flame of magic inside every stone & every flower, every bird that sings & every frog that croaks. There’s magic in the trees & the hills & the river & the rocks, in the sea & the stars & the wind, a deep, wild magic that’s as old as the world itself. It’s...

Don’t be afraid to grow up, Peter. It’s only a trap if you forget how to fly.

Sometimes,’ Beauty said softly, sipping from her silver goblet, ‘everyone needs to let the beast inside them out for a while’. She laughed, a sound like a waterfall meeting the sea and more glitter escaped from her fingertips. ‘I like to see it. We all have our dark lusts. We should enjoy them.

Beware a kiss, he told her. Kisses are powerful things. You expose part of your soul.