Bettelheim Fairy Quotes & Sayings

Your heart is not living intil it has experienced pain ... the pain of love breaks open the heart, even if it is as hard as a rock. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

Standing on a ledge again. Everyone laughs at dancing monkey with the typewriter. Not for long, though. — Neil Simon

The delight we experience when we allow ourselves to respond to a fairy tale, the enchantment we feel, comes not from the psychological meaning of the tale (although this contributes to it) but from its literary qualities-the tale itself as a work of art, — Bruno Bettelheim

All you need is a dream to drive you nuts. — Debasish Mridha

The unrealistic nature of these tales (which narrowminded rationalists object to) is an important device, because it makes obvious that the fairy tales' concern is not useful information about the external world, but the inner process taking place in an individual. — Bruno Bettelheim

A parent who from his own childhood experience is convinced of the value of fairy tales will have no difficulty in answering his child's questions; but an adult who thinks these tales are only a bunch of lies had better not try telling them; he won't be able to related them in a way which would enrich the child's life. — Bruno Bettelheim

Fairy tales are loved by the child not because the imagery he finds in them conforms to what goes on within him, but because
despite all the angry, anxious thoughts in his mind to which the fairy tale gives body and specific content
these stories always result in a happy outcome, which the child cannot imagine on his own. — Bruno Bettelheim

For those who immerse themselves in what the fairy tale has to communicate, it becomes a deep, quiet pool which at first seems to reflect only our own image; but behind it we soon discover the inner turmoils of our soul - its depth, and ways to gain peace within ourselves and with the world, which is the reward of our struggles. — Bruno Bettelheim

I could have danced all night! — Alan Jay Lerner

A child ... who has learned from fairy stories to believe that what at first seemed a repulsive, threatening figure can magically change into a most helpful friend is ready to believe that a strange child whom he meets and fears may also be changed from a menace into a desirable companion. — Bruno Bettelheim

Socialism, Puritanism, Philistinism, Christianity - he saw them all as allotropic forms of democracy, as variations upon the endless struggle of quantity against quality, of the weak and timorous against the strong and enterprising, of the botched against the fit. — H.L. Mencken

I have heard about your gifts myself, Miss Roth,' read the subtitle under Brentford's awkward mumble. — Jean-Christophe Valtat

You can't just hope for happy endings. You have to believe in them. Then do the work, take the risks. Slay the dragon - though I really think dragons get a bad rap - kiss the princess, or the frog, defeat the bad witch. — Nora Roberts

Maybe if more of our adolescents had been brought up on fairy tales, they would (unconsciously) remain aware of the fact that their conflict is not with the adult world, or society, but really only with their parents. Further, threatening as the parent may seem at some time, it is always the child who wins out in the long — Bruno Bettelheim

This is exactly the message that fairy tales get across to the child in manifold form: that a struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, is an intrinsic part of human existence
but that if one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious. — Bruno Bettelheim

Since there are thousands of fairy tales, one may safely guess that there are probably equal numbers where the courage and determination of females rescue males, and vice versa. — Bruno Bettelheim