Stories Proverbs
Sayings about Tales & Stories
Every story has two sides and every song has twelve versions. ~ Icelandic ProverbsTale-bearers are just as bad as the tale-makers. ~ Traditional Proverb
A good storyteller must be able to lie a little. ~ Chinese Proverbs
A tale never loses in the telling. ~ Traditional Proverb
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter. ~ African Proverb
The man who comes with a tale about others has himself an ax to grind. ~ Chinese Proverb
A drink precedes a story. ~ Irish Proverbs
Where no wood is, the fire goes out; so where there is no tale bearer, the strife ceaseth. ~ Bible
Dead men tell no tales. ~ Traditional Proverb
A tale is soon told; a deed is not soon done. ~ Russian Proverbs
Never tell your story to a deaf man. ~ Traditional Proverb
Many a good tale is spoiled in the telling. ~ Scottish Proverbs
A good tale is none the worse for being twice told. ~ French Proverbs
A drink is shorter than a tale. ~ Traditional Proverb
Every tale can be told in a different way. ~ Greek Proverbs
Time is a great story teller. ~ Irish Proverb
He who comes with a story to you brings two away from you. ~ Irish Proverb
If you want to know how the true story goes, wait till the arguments start. ~ African Proverb
Don’t ask questions of fairy tales. ~ Jewish Proverbs
A story is only half told if there is only one side presented. ~ Icelandic Proverbs
Once upon a time only Washington’s face was on our money, now Washington’s hands are on it too. ~ Saying
Don’t tell any more fairy tales when the child has gone to sleep. ~ Burundi Proverb
There are two sides to every story — and then there’s the truth. ~ American Proverbs
Every man’s tale is good until another’s being told. ~ Scottish Proverb
Who came back from the grave and told the story? ~ Tunisian Proverbs
A true friend laughs at your stories even when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your troubles even when they’re not so bad. ~ Saying
Quotations about Stories
The greatest religions convert the world through stories. ~ Ben OkriSometimes you can tell a large story with a tiny subject. ~ Eliot Porter
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters. ~ George Eliot
Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time. ~ Leo Buscaglia
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns me for a villain. ~ William Shakespeare
Life is too short for a long story. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it. ~ D. H. Lawrence
Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. ~ William Shakespeare
All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning. ~ Henry David Thoreau
The good historian is like the giant of the fairy tale. He knows that wherever he catches the scent of human flesh, there his quarry lies. ~ Marc Bloch
Yes, hell exists. It is not a fairy tale. One indeed burns there. This hell is not at the end of life. It is here. At the beginning. Hell is what the infant must experience before he gets to us. ~ Dr. Frederick Leboyer
We don’t need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do’s and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever. ~ Philip Pullman
I’ve learned that I want what I deny. I want someone who is crazy about me, who treats me like a princess. I want the picture-perfect fairy tale stuff. ~ Selena Gomez
As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale – my dreams become the substances of my life. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before. ~ Willa Cather
A tale is born from an image, and the image extends and creates a network of meanings that are always equivocal. ~ Italo Calvino
A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run. ~ Ouida
Once upon a time when a secret was revealed, people paid an enormous amount of attention to it. ~ Paul Levinson
We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story. ~ Mary McCarthy
It’s very simple, I just tell my sad story, and people weep. ~ Corazon Aquino
Once upon a time, is how stories begin…~ N’Zuri Za Austin
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. ~ John Berger
Maybe my fairy tale has a different ending than I dreamed it would. But that’s OK. ~ Kim Kardashian
Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you. ~ Ernest Hemingway
I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as it was said to me. ~ Sir Walter Scott
The guru, if he is gifted, reads the story as any bilingual person might. He does not translate-he understands. ~ Sheldon Kopp
Many a good story has been ruined by over verification. ~ James Gordon Bennett
Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale. ~ Hans Christian Andersen
Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions. ~ Laurence Sterne
If you see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future. ~ Danielle Steel
Today will soon be once upon a time! If you want to own a beautiful past in the future, you need to have beautiful todays! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan
I’d imagine my wedding as a fairy tale… huge, beautiful and white. ~ Paris Hilton
Once upon a time, forests were repositories of magic for the human race. ~ John Burnside
Once upon a time, there was a clear set of choices that people made. Now there are so many choices of how to think, how to define ourselves. ~ Tamar Jacoby
Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will. ~ Michel Eyquem De Montaigne
Great deeds give choice of many tales. Choose a slight tale, enrich it large, and then let wise men listen. ~ Pindar
Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace. ~ Eugene O’Neill
I am your fairy tale. Your dream. Your wishes and desires, and I am your thirst and your hunger and your food and your drink. ~ Klaus Kinski
I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, “I will tell you a story,” and then he passes the hat. ~ Robertson Davies
We are living in the Universe of Once Upon a Time! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan
Once upon a time the world was sweeter than we knew. Everything was ours; how happy we were then, but then once upon a time never comes again. ~ Johnny Mercer
Once upon a time there was what there was, and if nothing had happened there would be nothing to tell. ~ Charles de Lint
My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation.~ Helen Keller
Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself. ~ Octavia E. Butler
If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again. ~ Groucho Marx
Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s finger. ~ Hans Christian Andersen
To me, a fairy tale seems to have become reality. ~ Nelly Sachs
If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. ~ Orson Welles
The life of every person is like a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another. ~ James M. Barrie
Death is not a period but a comma in the story of life. ~ Amos Traver
There was no ‘before’ the beginning of our universe, because once upon a time there was no time. ~ John D. Barrow
Every past used to be a future once upon a time. ~ Munia Khan
One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories. ~ Jean De La Bruyere
Our story is a ‘once upon a time‘, but it’s not a ‘happy ever after’. ~ Rupert Sanders
If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it. ~ Horace Mann
While ‘Once upon a time’ may be a great way to start a story, ‘Here in the moment’ is the best way to live one. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich
Trust the tale, not the teller. ~ David Knopfler
Usually, the fairy tale ends with the girl marrying the prince. But mine started as soon as the marriage was over. ~ Diane von Furstenberg
It’s really important that, as women, we tell our stories. That is what helps seed our imaginations. ~ Ann Bancroft
Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. ~ John Barth
I’ve had a fairy tale life. I had a perfect family, a beautiful childhood, an incredible upbringing. I lived a lot of life but a lot of good life. ~ John Stamos
History’s like a story in a way: it depends on who’s telling it. ~ Dorothy Salisbury Davis
A boy’s story is the best that is ever told. ~ Charles Dickens
Who tells a finer tale than any of us. Silence does. ~ Isak Dinesen
No storyteller has ever been able to dream up anything as fantastically unlikely as what really does happen in this mad Universe. ~ Lazarus Long
A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind. ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer
Your life story would not make a good book. Don’t even try. ~ Fran Lebowitz
A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled. ~ Raymond Chandler
No story ever looks as bad as the story you’ve just bought; no story ever looks as good as the story the other fellow just bought. ~ Irving Thalberg
We love a tale of heroes and villains and conflicts requiring a neat resolution. ~ Barry Ritholtz
The teller of a mirthful tale has latitude allowed him. We are content with less than absolute truth. ~ Charles Lamb
If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and everyday you have the opportunity to write a new page.~ Mark Houlahan
The first law of story-telling. Every man is bound to leave a story better than he found it. ~ Mrs. Humphrey Ward
All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality — the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape. ~ Arthur Christopher Benson
No matter what you write, you actually can’t help retelling a fairy tale somewhere along the way. ~ Catherynne M. Valente
The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye. ~ Jimi Hendrix
Once upon a time, there was a story. But no one to tell it. ~ A.D.Y. Howle
Thou shalt not’ is soon forgotten, but ‘Once upon a time‘ lasts forever. ~ Philip Pullman
Every story has three sides. Yours, mine and the facts. ~ Foster M. Russell
There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale. ~ Charles de Lint
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing. ~ William Shakespeare
Years ago, fairy tales all began with Once upon a time… now we know they all begin with, If I am elected. ~ Carolyn Warner
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