Alan Dundes Quotes

• Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

  Alan Dundes

  Inspirational, Funny, Christmas

  2243 Copy quote

• Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents.

  Alan Dundes

  Children, Grandparent, Asian Culture

  91 Copy quote

• If a student takes the whole series of my folklore courses including the graduate seminars, he or she should learn something about fieldwork, something about bibliography, something about how to carry out library research, and something about how to publish that research.

  Alan Dundes

  Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

  23 Copy quote

• Americans often have trouble enjoying the present moment.

  Alan Dundes

  Trouble, Moments, Enjoy

  10 Copy quote

• Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.

  Alan Dundes

  Transition, Incorporation, Seems

  62 Copy quote

• Future orientation is combined with a notion and expectation of progress, and nothing is impossible.

  Alan Dundes

  Expectations, Progress, Impossible

  13 Copy quote

• In my introductory course, Anthropology 160, the Forms of Folklore, I try to show the students what the major and minor genres of folklore are, and how they can be analyzed.

  Alan Dundes

  Trying, Students, Genre

  23 Copy quote

• I mentioned that one of the tripartite formulas in American worldview involves time: past, present, and future.

  Alan Dundes

  Past, Worldview, Formulas

  10 Copy quote

• Americans have a penchant for the future and tend to disregard the past.

  Alan Dundes

  Past, Disregard

  10 Copy quote

• In the light of our culture, these are not unreasonable questions and tactics, but if once again, we try to see the lens through which we look, we can see that there is far too great an emphasis placed on the future.

  Alan Dundes

  Light, Trying, Culture

  9 Copy quote

• Polls are frequently taken to try to tease out or determine likely directions and trends, but once taken, they belong to the past, requiring that new polls be taken.

  Alan Dundes

  Taken, Past, Trying

  8 Copy quote

• Cities all over the world are getting bigger as more and more people move from rural to urban sites, but that has created enormous problems with respect to environmental pollution and the general quality of life.

  Alan Dundes

  Moving, Cities, People

  7 Copy quote

• I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions.

  Alan Dundes

  Religious, Personal Knowledge, Class

  25 Copy quote

• My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.

  Alan Dundes

  Years, Identity, Taught

  25 Copy quote

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