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Joseph Campbell Quotes

Writer
Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.
From The Power of Myth
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The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
From The Power of Myth
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We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
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A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
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Heresy is the life of a mythology and orthodoxy is the death.
From Mythology and the Individual
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Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.
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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.
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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 that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
From The Power of Myth
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Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.
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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.
From The Power of Myth
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Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.
From Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
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We must be willing to get rid of
the life we’ve planned, so as to have
the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed
before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck.
When we hang onto any form,
we are in danger of putrefaction.

Hell is life drying up.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
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All religions are true but none are literal.
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You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
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Myth is what we call other people's religion.
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Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
From The Power of Myth
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Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.
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If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.
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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.
From The Power of Myth
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One great thing about growing old is that nothing is going to lead to anything. Everything is of the moment.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
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We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
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Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
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Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Heresy is the life of a mythology and orthodoxy is the death.
From Mythology and the Individual
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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 that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.
From Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We must be willing to get rid of
the life we’ve planned, so as to have
the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed
before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck.
When we hang onto any form,
we are in danger of putrefaction.

Hell is life drying up.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All religions are true but none are literal.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Myth is what we call other people's religion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One great thing about growing old is that nothing is going to lead to anything. Everything is of the moment.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Heresy is the life of a mythology and orthodoxy is the death.
From Mythology and the Individual
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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 that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.
From Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We must be willing to get rid of
the life we’ve planned, so as to have
the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed
before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck.
When we hang onto any form,
we are in danger of putrefaction.

Hell is life drying up.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All religions are true but none are literal.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Myth is what we call other people's religion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Power of Myth
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One great thing about growing old is that nothing is going to lead to anything. Everything is of the moment.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote