Quotes From "The Heros Journey: Joseph Campbell On His Life & Work" By Joseph Campbell

You enter the forestat 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 realizeyour potential. Joseph Campbell

Just as anyone who listens to the muse will hear, you can write out of your own intention or out of inspiration. There is such a thing. It comes up and talks. And those who have heard deeply the rhythms and hymns of the gods, can recite those hymns in such a way that the gods will be attracted. Joseph Campbell

Now I found it in writing sentences. You can write that sentence in a way that you would have written it last year. Or you can write it in the way of the exquisite nuance that is sriting in your mind now. But that takes a lot of ... waiting for the right word to come. Joseph Campbell

You can get a lot of work done if you stay with it and are excited and its play instead of work. Joseph Campbell

Passion makes most psychiatrists nervous Joseph Campbell

The image that comes to mind is a boxing ring. There are times when..you just want that bell to ring, but you're the one who's losing. The one who's winning doesn't have that feeling. Do you have the energy and strength to face life? Life can ask more of you than you are willing to give. And then you say, 'Life is not something that should have been. I'm not going to play the game. I'm going to meditate. I'm going to call "out".'There are three positions possible. One is the up-to-it, and facing the game and playing through. The second is saying, Absolutely not. I don't want to stay in this dogfight. That's the absolute out. The third position is the one that says, This is mixed of good and evil. I'm on the side of the good. I accept the world with corrections. And may [the world] be the way I like it. And it's good for me and my friends. There are only the three positions. Joseph Campbell

The ego is as you think of yourself. You in relation to all the commitments of your life, as you understand them. The self is the whole range of possibilities that you've never even thought of. And you're stuck with you're past when you're stuck with the ego. Because if all you know about yourself is what you found out about yourself, well, that already happened. The self is a whole field of potentialities to come through. Joseph Campbell

The first function of mythology is showing everything as a metaphor to transcendence. Joseph Campbell

A mythological image that has to be explained to the brain is not working. Joseph Campbell

The fundamental human experience is that of compassion. Joseph Campbell

Mythology is to relate found truth to the living of a life. Joseph Campbell

The imitation of Christ is the joyful participation in the sorrows of the world. Joseph Campbell

They thought that it would be a disgrace to go forth as a group. Each entered the forest at a point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no path. If there is a path it is someone else's path and you are not on the adventure. Joseph Campbell

When you don't have a job (requiring reading) and you are doing your own reading you've got deep psychological questions. As deep as those of a little boy. Joseph Campbell

Reading what you want, and having one book lead to the next, is the way I found my discipline. Joseph Campbell