Joseph Campbell quotes

Joseph Campbell was an American professor, writer, and mythologist, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His influential book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" explored universal themes in myths and inspired countless writers and filmmakers. He encouraged others to "follow their bliss" and changed how people understand storytelling. Here are 163 of his quotes:

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

Joseph Campbell

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.

Joseph Campbell

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Joseph Campbell

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.

Joseph Campbell

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

Joseph Campbell

Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.

Joseph Campbell

We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.

Joseph Campbell

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.

Joseph Campbell

It's only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world.

Joseph Campbell

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

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

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

Joseph Campbell

Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

Joseph Campbell

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.

Joseph Campbell

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.

Joseph Campbell

I think it's important to live life with a knowledge of its mystery, and of your own mystery.

Joseph Campbell

Our life evokes our character and you find out more about yourself as you go on.

Joseph Campbell

In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dreams.

Joseph Campbell

I don't need faith. I have experience.

Joseph Campbell

If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.

Joseph Campbell

Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.

Joseph Campbell

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

Joseph Campbell