Folk Saying
The "Florian Principle" (known in German language areas as "Sankt-Florians-Prinzip") is named after a somewhat ironic "prayer" to Saint Florian: "O heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon' mein Haus, zünd' and're an", translating to "O holy Saint Florian, spare my house, kindle others". This saying is used in German much like the English "not in my back yard", when the speaker wants to point out that some person tries to get out of an unpleasant situation by an action that will put others in that very same situation. The name Florian is considered a stereotypical name for a fireman in the German speaking world. In some cases call for a fireman will actually be spoken as calls for Florian.
Read more about this topic: Saint Florian
Famous quotes containing the word folk:
“The ties between gentle folk are as pure as water; the links between scoundrels are as thick as honey.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have “really happened,” or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)