Where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

—So you're saying humans need fantasies to make life bearable?

—No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

—With Toothfairires? Hogfathers?

—Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.

—So we can believe the big ones?

—Yes. Justice, Mercy, Duty. That sort of thing.

—Thery're not the same at all.

—You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down into to finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice. One molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.

—But people have got to believe that... or what's the point?

—You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?

Hogfather (2006)

Discworld

Terry Pratchett.