legend Quotes

“What Robin Hood is to the English and John Henry to the American Negroes, Elil-Hrair-Rah, or El-ahrairah—The Prince with a Thousand Enemies—is to rabbits. Uncle Remus might well have heard of him, for some of El-ahrairah’s adventures are those of Brer Rabbit. For that matter, Odysseus himself might have borrowed a trick or two from the rabbit hero, for he is very old and was never at a loss for a trick to deceive his enemies.”

“Once, so they say, he had to get home by swimming across a river in which there was a large and hungry pike. El-ahrairah combed himself until he had enough fur to cover a clay rabbit, which he pushed into the water. The pike rushed at it, bit it and left it in disgust. After a little, it drifted to the bank and El-ahrairah dragged it out and waited a while before pushing it in again. After an hour of this, the pike left it alone, and when it had done so for the fifth time, El-ahrairah swam across himself and went home. Some rabbits say he controls the weather, because the wind, the damp and the dew are friends and instruments to rabbits against their enemies.”

“The myth of the Tadpole Angel was complete. Now it could only grow and shape as legends are wont to do. Nothing I would ever do could change things. I had crossed the line to where only the greatest of the medicine men have ever been, perhaps even further, for not even the greatest were known by all the tribes and honored by all of the people. I had become a legend.”

“And people will say: ‘Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!’ And they’ll say: ‘Yes, that’s one of my favorite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn’t he dad?’ ‘Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that’s saying a lot.‘”

“You should have taken me with you,” I whisper to him. Then I lean my head against his and begin to cry. In my mind, I make a silent promise to my brother’s killer.”

“Put your foot through the hole in the seedpod where I was playing, and you will become wise.”

“Greatness makes you a legend; being the best makes you an icon. If you want to be great, deliver the unexpected.”

“Ye Old Sea Captain. [...]Living legend, he is.”

“A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.”

“This should be agony. I should be a mass of aching muscle--broken, spent, unable to move. And, were I an older man, I surely would... But I am a man of thirty--of twenty again. The rain on my chest is a baptism--I’m born again.”

“Facts are fine, fer as they go... but they’re like water bugs skittering atop the water. Legends, now — they go deep down and bring up the heart of a story.”

“It may be history, it may be only a legend, a tradition. It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it could have happened. It may be that the wise and the learned believed it in the old days; it maybe that only the unlearned and the simple loved it and credited it.”

“It is said that the current duke had an ancestor so wise that even as a child he could do complex mathematical calculations. prove difficult geometric theorems, and accurately locate the constellations in the sky.”

“Back in City Zoo, stories of their escape were being celebrated in every cage. They had fast become heroes- the stuff of legends.”

“The search for the Holy Grail; and the rivalries and jealousies that splintered the fellowship and set friend against friend. ”

“Still, even when false, legends can be most informative.”

“Anancy Spiderman had no idea what he was going to do today. But he knew something would happen if he started moving. He left his house and started walking along the road.”

″.. the island of Evertaller, where legend has it children turn into grown-ups overnight and never have to go to school again…”