Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by John Gray

Quote by John Gray

“Tragedy is born of myth, not morality. Prometheus and Icarus are tragic heroes. Yet none of the myths in which they appear has anything to do with moral dilemmas. Nor have the greatest Greek tragedies. If Euripides is the most tragic of the Greek playwrights, it is not because he deals with moral conflicts but because he understood that reason cannot be the guide of life.”

Quote by John Gray

Book:Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
Create image

Work

Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

John Gray
John Gray

John Gray, born on December 28, 1951, is a renowned author. His works primarily revolve around interpersonal relationships and gender differences, with his most famous book being 'Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus'. His books have gained widespread popularity worldwide, offering profound insights into gender communication and relationship understanding. more

You May Also Like

“History doesn’t start with a tall building and a card with your name written on it, but jokes do. I think someone is taking us for suckers and is playing a mean game.”

LifeRomanceDeathSexWaterMusicDreamsMagicSacrificeRainEmptyScience FictionJazzShipsPianoPoemsWakingAbandonedGreek MythologyApocalypseGhostsHauntingGothicShakespeareTempestMagickSongsAmnesiaDamnationStormsReflectionsDesolatePuddlesMasqueradeAndroidsEmily DickinsonCountSpectreHauntsMannequinsCityisleCityspireCarrackFedoraHorace WalpolePhillip K DickSpecters
Author:Nathan Reese Maher
Create image

“I steal one glance over my shoulder as soon as we are far from the foreboding luminance of the neon glow, and it is there that my stomach leaps into my throat. Squatting just shy of the light and partially concealed by the shade of an alley is a sinister silhouette beneath a crimson cowl, beaming a demonic smile which spans from cheek to swollen cheek.”

LifeRomanceDeathSexWaterMusicDreamsMagicSacrificeRainEmptyScience FictionJazzShipsPianoPoemsWakingAbandonedGreek MythologyApocalypseGhostsHauntingGothicShakespeareTempestMagickSongsAmnesiaDamnationStormsReflectionsDesolatePuddlesMasqueradeAndroidsEmily DickinsonCountSpectreHauntsMannequinsCityisleCityspireCarrackFedoraHorace WalpolePhillip K DickSpecters
Author:Nathan Reese Maher
Create image

“She leaves my side and heads deeper into the apartment singing, “—if the spirit tries to hide, its temple far away… a copper for those they ask, a diamond for those who stay.”

LifeRomanceDeathSexWaterMusicDreamsMagicSacrificeRainEmptyScience FictionJazzShipsPianoPoemsWakingAbandonedGreek MythologyApocalypseGhostsHauntingGothicShakespeareTempestMagickSongsAmnesiaDamnationStormsReflectionsDesolatePuddlesMasqueradeAndroidsEmily DickinsonCountSpectreHauntsMannequinsCityisleCityspireCarrackFedoraHorace WalpolePhillip K DickSpecters
Author:Nathan Reese Maher
Create image

“I rouse Emily to our guests, as she finishes off our fifteenth snowman by setting the head atop its torso. She stands limp at my direction, pointing out the coming shadows and I cannot help but hear a muffled sigh as she decapitates her latest creation with a single push of her hand.”

LifeRomanceDeathSexWaterMusicDreamsMagicSacrificeRainEmptyScience FictionJazzShipsPianoPoemsWakingAbandonedGreek MythologyApocalypseGhostsHauntingGothicShakespeareTempestMagickSongsAmnesiaDamnationStormsReflectionsDesolatePuddlesMasqueradeAndroidsEmily DickinsonCountSpectreHauntsMannequinsCityisleCityspireCarrackFedoraHorace WalpolePhillip K DickSpecters
Author:Nathan Reese Maher
Create image

“Kerényi was as aware as anybody today of the territorial limits of Greek myths and of the non-importability of Hermes. He writes: “In his ‘such-ness,’ he is an historical fact that cannot, by strict and honest historical means, be reduced to something else: neither to a concept, to a ‘power,’ nor to a ‘spirit’ – a gravestone or signpost spirit – not even to an idea that would not contain in a nutshell everything that Hermes’ ‘such-ness’ constitutes.” … Working more in Hermes’ own sleight of hand way, Kerényi is soon saying things like this: “If a god is ‘idea’ and ‘world,’ he remains nonetheless in connection with the world that contains all such ‘worlds’; he can only be an ‘aspect of the world,’ while the world of which he is an aspect possesses such idea-aspects.” Now, if you will let Kerényi get away with a statement like that – and I hope you will – you will end up owning the Brooklyn Bridge. … Kerényi’s Hermes is the only one that is going to rob you or enrich you, enlighten you or screw you. … “Guide of Souls” is the usual translation given to the Hermes-epithet “Psychopompos” and it refers to his role as the god who leads souls into the underworld when they die. But πομπóς (still present in every French funeral store’s “Pompes funèbres” description of itself) is more than guide, and even more than guide to the underworld. It means to lead, but Hermes as leader is not quite right either. It means something more like to lead on. Hermes is the god who “leads you on.” … This means he is deceiving you, taking advantage of your gullibility, “taking you for a ride.” That, however, is how Hermes works, and how he gets your soul to move anywhere, how he gets you to budge even a hair off whatever you’re in … . … Go ahead and buy the Brooklyn Bridge from this man. Be had. Be incorrect. Be foolish. You pay with your soul for this kind of reading. And Hermes does not take plastic.”

Greek MythologyHermesGreek Myths
Book:Hermes: Guide of Souls
Create image

“Im Geiste rückte Helen noch näher an das Liebespaar heran, obwohl sie längst wusste, wen die andere Helen gerade küsste. Lucas. Er hatte ein Schwert am Gürtel und war seltsam gekleidet. Er trug Sandalen und seien Hände waren mit abgewetzten Lederstreifen, über denen er Bronzehandschuhe trug. Doch es war eindeutig Lucas. Das bewies auch sein Lachen, als die andere Helen ihn mit Küssen überschüttete.”

GoddessGreek MythologyYa RomanceJosephine AngeliniGöttlich Verliebt
Book:Goddess
Create image