Joseph Campbell: Trending quotes (page 3)

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“All cultures … have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths.”

Joseph Campbell

Lecture 1B, 8:20
Mythology and the Individual (1997)
Context: All cultures … have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works.

“Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works.”

Joseph Campbell

Lecture 1B, 8:20
Mythology and the Individual (1997)
Context: All cultures … have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works.

People

“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.”

Joseph Campbell book The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Campbell follows with a quote from Ovid's Metamorposes, "All things are changing; nothing dies..."
Chapter 2
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
Context: 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.... Tragedy is the shattering of the forms and of our attachment to the forms... the two are the terms of a single mythological theme... the down-going and the up-coming (kathados and anodos), which together constitute the totality of the revelation that is life, and which the individual must know and love if he is to be purged (katharsis=purgatorio) of the contagion of sin (disobedience to the divine will) and death (identification with the mortal form).

Soul , Universe , Reading , Happiness

“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 The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth (book), p.183
Context: Moyers: Unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we're not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.
Campbell: But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. 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.

World , Personality

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

Joseph Campbell
History

“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.”

Joseph Campbell
Life , Way , Thinking , Time

“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

Source: The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work

Way

“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 The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

Forgetting

“The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth (book), Ch. 2 : The Journey Inward
Context: One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.

Light

“Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world.”

Joseph Campbell book The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

World , Heart

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

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Episode 2, Chapter 22
Source: The Power of Myth (1988)

God

“The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

Life , Pain

“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.”

Joseph Campbell
Religion , Way

“Not all who hesitate are lost. The psyche has many secrets in reserve. And these are not disclosed unless required.”

Joseph Campbell

Source: The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Secret

“I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money [not for purpose or passion]- has turned himself into a slave.”

Joseph Campbell
Money , Thinking , Passion , Personality