Joseph Campbell quotes - page 4

Marx teaches us to blame society for our frailties, Freud teaches us to blame our parents, and astrology teaches us to blame the universe. The only place to look for blame is within: you didn't have the guts to bring up your full moon and live the life that was your potential. (Joseph Campbell)
Follow your inner heart and the world moves in and helps. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Sit in a room and read--and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Most curiously, the very scientist who, in the service of the sinful king, was the brain behind the horror of the labyrinth, quite as readily can serve the purposes of freedom. But the hero-heart must be at hand. ...He is the hero of the way of thought-singlehearted, courageous, and full of faith that the truth, as he finds it, shall make us free. View quote
Joseph Campbell
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. View quote
Joseph Campbell
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. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Regrets are illuminations come too late. View quote
Joseph Campbell
All cultures ... have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It's what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works. (Joseph Campbell)
The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man. View quote
Joseph Campbell
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. View quote
Joseph Campbell
A bit of advice Given to a young Native American At the time of his initiation: As you go the way of life, You will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think. View quote
Joseph Campbell
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. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Gods suppressed become devils, and often it is these devils whom we first encounter when we turn inward. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Not all who hesitate are lost. The psyche has many secrets in reserve. And these are not disclosed unless required. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. View quote
Joseph Campbell
When you realize that eternity is right here now, that it is within your possibility to experience the eternity of your own truth and being, then you grasp the following: That which you are was never born and will never die.... (90) View quote
Joseph Campbell
Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another. (Joseph Campbell)
Writer's block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows. View quote
Joseph Campbell
All life stinks and you must embrace that with compassion. View quote
Joseph Campbell
How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. (92) View quote
Joseph Campbell
When you follow your bliss... doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else. View quote
Joseph Campbell