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Joseph Campbell Quotes - Page 15

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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

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.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Religious, Atheist
Joseph Campbell (2010). “Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor”, p.3, ReadHowYouWant.com

The entire heavenly realm is within us, but to find it we have to relate to what's outside.

Joseph Campbell
Realms, Heavenly, Relate

Mythologies, in other words, mythologies and religions are great poems and, when recognized as such, point infallibly through things and events to the ubiquity of a

Joseph Campbell
Ubiquity, Events, Mythology
Joseph Campbell (1972). “Myths to live by”, Viking Pr

The Greeks, it will be recalled, regarded Eros, the god of love, as the eldest of the gods; but also as the youngest, born fresh and dewy-eyed in every living heart.

Joseph Campbell
Heart, Greek, Born

There seem to be only two kinds of people: Those who think that metaphors are facts, and those who know that they are not facts. Those who know they are not facts are what we call "atheists," and those who think they are facts are "religious." Which group really gets the message?

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Religious, Atheist
Joseph Campbell (2010). “Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor”, p.75, ReadHowYouWant.com

We're all seeking...the rapture of being alive.

Joseph Campbell
Alive, Rapture, Seeking

Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Poetry, Biographies
Joseph Campbell (2008). “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, p.213, New World Library

Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths. By finding your own dream and following it through, it will lead you to the myth-world in which you live. But just as in dream, the subject and object, though they seem to be separate, are really the same.

Joseph Campbell
Dream, World, Myth

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

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Technology, Civilization
"Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (The Message of the Myth)". TV Mini-Series, June 22, 1988.

The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale-as the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea. For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source.

Joseph Campbell
Ocean, Eggs, Creative
Joseph Campbell (2008). “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, p.1, New World Library

Every story you tell is your own story.

Joseph Campbell
Stories

Life will always be sorrowful. We can't change it, but we can change our attitude toward it.

Joseph Campbell
Attitude, Sorrowful, Can't Change

We are having experiences all the time which may on occasion render some sense of this, a little intuition of where your bliss is. Grab it. No one can tell you what it is going to be. You have to learn to recognize your own depth.

Joseph Campbell
Intuition, Depth, May
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.147, Anchor

Privation and suffering alone open the mind to all that is hidden to others. (Igjugarjuk)

Joseph Campbell
Mind, Suffering
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.12, Anchor

It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.

Joseph Campbell
Spirit, Prime, Function
Joseph Campbell (2008). “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, p.7, New World Library

The folktale is the primer of the picture-language of the soul.

Joseph Campbell
Soul, Language, Folktales
Joseph Campbell (1969). “The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension”, HarperCollins Publishers

The dance is the highest symbol of life itself.

Joseph Campbell
Symbols, Highest
Joseph Campbell (2011). “A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living”, p.192, Joseph Campbell Foundation

The function of the artist is the mythologization of the culture and the world. In the visual arts there were two men whose work handled mythological themes in a marvelous way: Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso.

Joseph Campbell
Art, Men, Two

The adventure evoked a quality of his character that he didn't know he possessed.

Joseph Campbell
Inspirational, Life, Positive
TV Mini-Series "The Power of Myth" ("Episode 1", Chapter 12), 1988.

The best advise is to take it all as if it had been your intention.

Joseph Campbell
Knowing Who You Are, Intention, Advise

Life lives on life. This is the sense of the symbol of the Ouroboros, the serpent biting its tail. Everything that lives lives on the death of something else. Your own body will be food for something else. Anyone who denies this, anyone who holds back, is out of order. Death is an act of giving.

Joseph Campbell
Life, Death, Order

Have you ever looked inside one of those things [computers]? It's a whole hierarchy of angels- all on slats. And those little tubes-those are miracles.

Joseph Campbell
Angel, Technology, Miracle
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.24, Anchor

The inner world is the world of your requirements and your energies and your structure and your possibilities that meets the outer world. And the outer world is the field of your incarnation. That’s where you are. You’ve got to keep both going. As Novalis said, ‘The seat of the soul is there where the inner and outer worlds meet.

Joseph Campbell
Soul, World, Requirements
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.68, Anchor

When people get married because they think it's a long-time love affair, they'll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity.

Joseph Campbell
Marriage, Spiritual, Disappointment
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.6, Anchor

Any god who can invent hell is no candidate for the Salvation Army

Joseph Campbell
God, Army, Hell
Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.279, Anchor

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