“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already.
Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.”
「童話故事正是如此，它讓小孩們知道，看似無止盡的恐懼其實是有限的，這些無形的敵人有其剋星，在宇宙中，有比黑暗更奧秘，比強烈的恐懼更強大的東西。」
─G. K. Chesterton《Tremendous Trifles》
言葉
― G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles
「故事不是孩童恐懼的來源，它從未灌輸醜陋與邪惡的概念，那是孩童心裡本來就有的，因為那是世上本來就有的。童話不曾告訴孩童鬼怪的存在，而是告訴他們鬼怪可以被打敗。小孩學會想像的那刻起，就知道龍的存在。童話真正的作用，是告訴孩子無邊的恐懼其實有邊界，無形的敵人也有剋星，這世界上有著比黑暗更神祕，比恐懼更強大的存在。」