The world of literature is a world where there is no reality except that of the human imagination.
Northrop FryeThe human landscape of the New World shows a conquest of nature by an intelligence that does not love it.
Northrop FryeThe pursuit of beauty is much more dangerous nonsense than the pursuit of truth or goodness, because it affords a stronger temptation to the ego.
Northrop FryeWe must reject that most dismal and fatuous notion that education is a preparation for life.
Northrop FryeThe metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones.
Northrop FryeA reader who quarrels with postulates, who dislikes Hamlet because he does not believe that there are ghosts or that people speak in pentameters, clearly has no business in literature. He cannot distinguish fiction from fact, and belongs in the same category as the people who send checks to radio stations for the relief of suffering heroines in soap operas.
Northrop Frye