If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.
Author · 13 quotes
Joseph Campbell was an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and religion. He is renowned for his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," in which he introduced the concept of the hero's journey, a recurring narrative structure found in myths and stories from cultures around the world.
1904–1987·lived 83 years
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.
It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 245, 1949
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. -The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 30, 1949
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living, p. 8, 2011
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.The Power of Myth, 1988
I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.The Power of Myth, 1988
When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.The Power of Myth, p. 134, 1988
Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.Campbell and God as Metaphor, 2017
I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.A Teacher of Legends Becomes One Himself, The New York Times, December 10, 1988
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living, 1991
To believe in the heroic makes heroes.The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949
That’s all 13 quotes by Joseph Campbell.