Humphrey Carpenter - You call a star a star, and say it is just a ball of matter moving on a mat

You call a star a star, and say it is just a ball of matter moving on a mathematical course. But that is merely how you see it. By so naming things and describing them you are only inventing your own terms about them. And just as speech is invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about truth.

- Humphrey Carpenter

source: Humphrey Carpenter (1977). “Tolkien: A Biography”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

topic: Stars, Moving, Ideas, Naming Things, Describing