What is tale?

Famous quotes containing the word tale:

“With a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you; with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

“The human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our bosoms! No solar orbit hems it in, the inexhaustible wealth of the total visible creation is outweighed by its riches!”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)

“He repelled, a short tale to make,
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)