Joseph Campbell, Inspirational quotes

Aloha Everyone,

Joseph John Campbell, an American writer, lecturer was best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion.   (3/26/1904 – 10/30/1987).  His phrase "Follow your bliss." is often mentioned to summarize his philosophy.   To read more about Joseph Campbell and his work, go to: http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php

“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.”

--Joseph Campbell

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

-- Joseph Campbell

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

--Joseph Campbell

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

--Joseph Campbell

“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.”

--Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“If you are falling....dive.”

--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.”

--Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology

“Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”

--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.”

--Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.”

--Joseph Campbell

“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.”

-- 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.”

--Joseph Campbell

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe to match your nature with Nature.”

--Joseph Campbell

“Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.”

--Joseph Campbell

“Follow your bliss.

If you do follow your bliss,

you put yourself on a kind of track

that has been there all the while waiting for you,

and the life you ought to be living

is the one you are living.

When you can see that,

you begin to meet people

who are in the field of your bliss,

and they open the doors to you.

I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,

and doors will open

where you didn't know they were going to be.

If you follow your bliss,

doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”

-- Joseph Campbell

“Regrets are illuminations come too late.”

--Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

“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

“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.”

--Joseph Campbell

“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

Namaste -- Cathi