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Joseph Campbell Quotes - Page 6

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The quest for fire occurred not because anyone knew what the practical uses for fire would be, but because it was fascinating.

The quest for fire occurred not because anyone knew what the practical uses for fire would be, but because it was fascinating.

Joseph Campbell
Fire, Would Be, Use

Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life.

Joseph Campbell
Cutting, Thinking, Long
"Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (The Message of the Myth)". TV Mini-Series, June 22, 1988.

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Courage, Morning
Joseph Campbell (2011). “A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living”, p.9, Joseph Campbell Foundation

Art is the clothing of a revelation

Joseph Campbell
Art, Revelations, Art Is

God is within you. You yourself are your creator. If you find that place in yourself from which you brought this thing about, you will be able to live with it and affirm it, perhaps even enjoy it, as your life.

Joseph Campbell
God, Able, Enjoy
"The Power of Myth".

Their task [creative artists], therefore, is to communicate directly from one inward world to another, in such a way that an actual shock of experience will have been rendered: not a mere statement for the information or persuasion of a brain, but an effective communication across the void of space and time from one center of consciousness to another.

Joseph Campbell
Communication, Artist, Space

There is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top of the ladder and discovering that you’re on the wrong wall.

Joseph Campbell
Wall, Ladders, Reaching The Top

Everything starts with a story.

Joseph Campbell
Stories

Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in the service of man. When man is in the service of society, you have a monster state, and that's what is threatening the world at this minute.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Men, Monsters
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.8, Anchor

It is not society which is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse.

Joseph Campbell
Hero, Creative, Guides

The key to the Grail is compassion, 'suffering with,' feeling another's sorrow as if it were your own. The one who finds the dynamo of compassion is the one who's found the Grail.

Joseph Campbell
Compassion, Keys, Feelings

Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Art, People
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.107, Anchor

Love is perfect kindness.

Joseph Campbell
Love, Kindness, Love Is
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.231, Anchor

You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else's path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else's way, you are not going to realize your potential.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Hero Journey, Way

The myth does not point to a fact; the myth points beyond facts to something that informs the fact

Joseph Campbell
Doe, Facts, Heroic

You have to strive every minute to get rid of the life that you have planned in order to have the life that's waiting to be yours. Move, move, move.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Moving, Order

Well, one of the problems about being psychoanalyzed is, as Nietzsche said, "Be careful lest in casting out your devils that you cast out the best thing that's in you." So many people who are really in deep analysis look as though and act as though they have been filleted. There's no bone there, there's no stuff! How to get rid of ego as dictator and turn it into messenger and servant and scout, to be in your service, is the trick.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, People, Ego
"The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work".

The world without spirit is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules, and who's on top, and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it's alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself.

Joseph Campbell
Creativity, People, Alive
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.183, Anchor

The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.

Joseph Campbell
Water, Swim, Delight

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are they should be living for.

Joseph Campbell
People, Soul, Listening
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.181, Anchor

He who thinks he knows, doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows.

Joseph Campbell
Ignorance, Knowledge, Thinking
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.65, Anchor

The real important function of the church is to present the symbol, to perform the rite, to let you behold this divine message in such a way that you are capable of experiencing it. What the relationship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost to each other might be, in technical terms, is not half important as you, the celebrant, feeling the Virgin Birth within you, the birth of the mystic, mythic being that is your own spiritual life.

Joseph Campbell
Spiritual, Father, Real

All we really want to do is dance.

Joseph Campbell
Want

Could God exist if nobody else did? No. That’s why gods are very avid for worshipers. If there is nobody to worship them, there are no gods. There are as many gods as there are people thinking about God. In choosing your god, you choose your way of looking at the universe. There are plenty of Gods. Choose yours. The god you worship is the god you deserve.

Joseph Campbell
Thinking, Avid, People

Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up. The earth must be broken to bring forth life. If the seed does not die there is no plant. Bread results from the death of wheat. Life lives on lives. Our own life lives on the acts of other people. If you are lifeworthy, you can take it.

Joseph Campbell
People, Broken, Perfection

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