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Joseph Campbell Quotes - Page 3

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God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.

God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.

Joseph Campbell
God, Simple, Intellectual

Anyone who has had an experience of mystery knows that there is a dimension of the universe that is not that which is available to his senses. There is a pertinent saying in one of the Upanishads: When before the beauty of a sunset or of a mountain you pause and exclaim, ‘Ah,’ you are participating in divinity. Such a moment of participation involves a realization of the wonder and sheer beauty of existence. People living in the world of nature experience such moments every day. They live in the recognition of something there that is much greater than the human dimension.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Sunset, People
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.258, Anchor

People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Life, Reality
TV Mini-Series "The Power of Myth" ("Episode 2", Chapter 4), 1988.

In one of the Upanishads it says, when the glow of a sunset holds you and you say 'Aha,' that is the recognition of the divinity. And when you say 'Aha' to an art object, that is a recognition of divinity. And what divinity is it? It is your divinity, which is the only divinity there is. We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses.

Joseph Campbell
Art, Sunset, Divinity

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. Fear of the unknown is our greatest fear. Many of us would enter a tiger's lair before we would enter a dark cave. While caution is a useful instinct, we lose many opportunities and much of the adventure of life if we fail to support the curious explorer within us.

Joseph Campbell
Adventure, Dark, Opportunity

We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Journey, World
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.183, Anchor

You don't ask what a dance means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what the world means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what you mean. You enjoy it.

Joseph Campbell
Mean, World, Enjoy
Joseph Campbell (2011). “Myths to Live By”, p.58, Joseph Campbell Foundation

I think a person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave. Work begins when you don't like what you're doing. There's a wise saying: make your hobby your source of income. Then there's no such thing as work, and there's no such thing as getting tired. That's been my own experience. I did just what I wanted to do. It takes a little courage at first, because who the hell wants you to do just what you want to do; they've all got lots of plans for you. But you can make it happen.

Joseph Campbell
Wise, Courage, Jobs

Follow your bliss. The heroic life is living the individual adventure. There is no security in following the call to adventure. Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be.

Joseph Campbell
Adventure, Outcomes, Heroic

The eternal principle, which never was born, never will die: it is in all things: it is in you now. You are the wave on the face of the ocean. When the wave is gone, is the water gone? Has anything happened? Nothing has happened. It is a play, a game, a dance.

Joseph Campbell
Ocean, Games, Play

There's something inside you that knows when you're in the center, that knows when you're on the beam or off the beam. And if you get off the beam to earn money, you've lost your life. And if you stay in the center and don't get any money, you still have your bliss.

Joseph Campbell
Bliss, Lost, Beam
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.285, Anchor

Survival is the second law of life. The first is that we are all one.

Joseph Campbell
Law, Survival, Firsts
Joseph Campbell (2011). “A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living”, p.37, Joseph Campbell Foundation

If you see your path laid out in front of you - Step one, Step two, Step three - you only know one thing . . . it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly.

Joseph Campbell
Two, Three, Path

Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Truth, Important

It takes courage to do what you want. Other people have a lot of plans for you... Follow your bliss.

Joseph Campbell
Spiritual, People, Want

The first step to the knowledge of the wonder and mystery of life is the recognition of the monstrous nature of the earthly human realm as well as its glory, the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think they know how the universe could have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without death, are unfit for illumination.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Time, Pain

Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end. The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth—that is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.

Joseph Campbell
Religious, Lying, Ignorance
"Thou Art that: Transforming Religious Metaphor".

Eternity is not future or past. Eternity is a dimension of now. It is a dimension of the human spirit -- which is eternal. Find that eternal dimension in yourself, and you will ride through time, and throughout the whole length of your days.

Joseph Campbell
Past, Dimensions, Spirit
Joseph Campbell, David Kudler (2004). “Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation”, p.18, New World Library

Wisdom and foolishness are practically the same. Both are indifferent to the opinions of the world

Joseph Campbell
Life, World, Opinion

One of the great disadvantages of a literary or scriptural tradition like the biblical one is that a deity or context of deities becomes crystallized, petrified at a certain time and place. The deity doesn’t continue to grow, expand, or take into account new cultural forces and new realizations in the sciences, and the result is this make-believe conflict we have in our culture between science and religion.

Joseph Campbell
Believe, Biblical, Culture

Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation.

Joseph Campbell
Secret, Energy, Cosmos
Joseph Campbell (2008). “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, p.1, New World Library

Eternity is not future or past. Eternity is a dimension of now.

Joseph Campbell
Future, Past, Dimensions
Joseph Campbell (2009). “Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation: Easyread Large Edition”, p.28, ReadHowYouWant.com

What if we choose not to do the things we are supposed to do? The principal gain is a sense of an authentic act - and an authentic life. It may be a short one, but it is an authentic one, and that's a lot better than those short lives full of boredom. The principal loss is security. Another is respect from the community. But you gain the respect of another community, the one that is worth having the respect of.

Joseph Campbell
Life, Respect, Loss

The goal of life is rapture. Art is the way we experience it.

Joseph Campbell
Art, Goal, Way

The conquest of fear yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every heroic adventure-- fearlessness and achievement.

Joseph Campbell
Adventure, Yield, Achievement
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.188, Anchor

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