Andrew Lang quotes

Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic, renowned for his collections of fairy tales. His influential work in folklore and anthropology helped popularize traditional stories across generations. He contributed greatly to the field by compiling and retelling classic folk narratives for children and adults alike. Here are 13 of his quotes:

There's a joy without canker or cark, There's a pleasure eternally new, 'T is to gloat on the glaze and the mark Of china that's ancient and blue.

Andrew Lang

You can cover a great deal of country in books.

Andrew Lang

Among the various forms of science which are reaching and affecting the new popular tradition, we have reckoned Anthropology. Pleasantly enough, Anthropology has herself but recently emerged from that limbo of the unrecognised in which Psychical Research is pining.

Andrew Lang

He missed an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue.

Andrew Lang

Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend "a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who really care for books read all of them. There is no other course.

Andrew Lang

O grant me a house by the beach of a bay, Where the waves can be surly in winter, and play With the sea-weed in summer, ye bountiful powers! And I'd leave all the hurry, the noise, and the fray, For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers.

Andrew Lang

They hear like ocean on a western beach The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.

Andrew Lang

If indeed there be a god in heaven.

Andrew Lang

The windy lights of Autumn flare; I watch the moonlit sails go by; I marvel how men toil and fare, The weary business that they play! Their voyaging is vanity, And fairy gold is all their gain, And all the winds of winter cry, "My Love returns no more again.”.

Andrew Lang

Life's more amusing than we thought.

Andrew Lang

I don't think the idea of homosexuality is really taboo any more. Our culture is evolving. This is an exciting time to be living.

Andrew Lang