Aaron Mahnke > Quotes

“Folklore is the thing that fills the vacuum created by a lack of knowledge.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“First, we have the Greek myth of Empusa, who was a daughter of Hecate. Empusa was said to lure young men at night and then feast on their blood before moving on to the main course—their flesh. Another Greek tale involves Lamia, a mistress of Zeus who becomes cursed by Zeus’s wife, Hera, and doomed to hunt children, devouring them.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“New Jersey, you see, is full of monsters.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. —JOHN STEINBECK, EAST OF EDEN”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“Berserker, in Old Norse, literally meant “bear shirt,”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“In fact, some drugs were completely misunderstood. Morphine, for example, wasn’t seen so much as a painkiller back then as a sleep aid…albeit one that was highly addictive. So much so that a former Confederate colonel named John Pemberton created a coca wine—a sort of tonic made of wine and cocaine—as a medicinal cure. When the city of Atlanta passed prohibition laws in 1886, Pemberton swapped out the wine for carbonated water, but the cocaine stayed in the beverage for almost two more decades. Today Pemberton’s drink is still sold as Coca-Cola, but the medicinal roots are long gone.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“The Greek root of the word “zodiac,” by the way, literally means “circle of little animals.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“Sometimes the evil queen is real.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“We assume the people around us are who they claim to be. That they have our best interests at heart. That they care. But all too often”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“The history of invention”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“Death, though, is a reality for all of us, whether we like it or not. Whether we’re young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sick, life is one long journey down a road, and we walk until it’s over. Some think they see light at the end of it all, while others hope for darkness. And that’s where the mystery of it all comes in. No one knows what’s on the other side; we just know that the proverbial walk ends at some point.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“In many ways, the stories we tell and the lessons we pass on are like a tree. There are branches that reach out into generations and cultures, sometimes in obvious ways, and other times reaching surprising new places.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“In ancient cultures—in the days before Facebook and even the printing press, if you can fathom that—society fought the feeling of being alone with story. Each culture developed a set of tales, a mythology and surrounding lore that filled in the cracks. These stories explained the unexplainable, filled the dark night with figures and shapes, and gave people—lonely or not—something else to talk about.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“safety is core to who we are as people. It’s not unique to humans, for sure—animals are very good at finding and building homes wherever they can—but it’s undeniable that safety drives a lot of our decisions.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“One of the professions that historically delivered bloodletting services was, of all people, the barber. Even today, you can find barber shops that still use the red-and-white striped pole outside. It’s a carryover from another era, designed to represent blood and bandages.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“Inside, they discovered bodies everywhere. Each seemed to have died from the same types of wounds: large, vicious cuts and injuries that almost seemed to have originated from a wild animal. Added to that, the interior of the transport smelled horribly of sulfur and the acrid odor of blood. To complicate matters, empty shell casings were found scattered about the interior of the cockpit. The pistols responsible, belonging to the pilot and co-pilot, were lying at their feet, their magazines emptied.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“Yes, our world is still full of dangerously irrational people—people that allow hate and jealously and their own deep insecurities to drive them toward monstrous actions.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“Music is…well, it’s life.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“It's a very human reaction. When we fail to understand something, we tend to attack it. If it's an unknown, it could be a threat—at least, that's our gut reaction to those moments. I'm not saying it's a good reaction, just the natural one.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

“Because in the end, as sad as it seems, there’s always another witch to burn, isn’t there?”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

“Music is in our blood. It’s in our soul.”
― Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures