Top Ten Joseph Campbell Quotes

Joseph Campbell was the world's foremost authority on myths and their significance in everyday life. His work was unparalleled and led to a completely new way of thinking about society and religion.

Most people think mythology is simply Greek stories of Gods and Goddesses but classical mythology is only a very small part of the whole. From Native American stories of buffalo kings to rituals of cannibalism in Papua New Guinea, myths are the stories that shape our cultural understanding.

Cave paintings show the myths of our ancestors relating to the hunt while modern Catholic mass depicts an entirely different myth about leaving the temporal word and entering the spiritual. Most myths from a society have a parallel version originating elsewhere in the world which serves to show that the stories that shaped our civilization are universally needed and understood.

Joseph Campbell shined the light on the origins and meaning of mythology as it relates to our cultural past and future. Below are some of his best quotes about life, love, responsibility, and happiness.
The Top Ten
1 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.

Myth: a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. Truth doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it. While one definition defines myth as a false belief or idea, as with many other words, it is defining "myth" used in a particular way and not as an axiom of the word.

Taking the scriptural stories literally (a six-day creation or a 40-day flood of the earth, etc.) serves to divide people who essentially believe the same things. When taken as a metaphor, religion unites and unifies - or can.

2 You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning... a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.

Whether it's classical meditation, practicing martial arts, or a sport, everyone needs a time to lose all sense of identity and turn inward.

3 Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter... This is it... If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here's the place to

The Buddhists call it Nirvana. Christians call it Heaven. But no matter what name it gets called, rapture is a frame of mind. Find happiness in the life you lead and you will have found Heaven. There's nothing to wait for that you can't find right now.

4 I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.

What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of a flower? Or a fly? Or a cloud? There is no meaning, it just is. Life has no meaning other than to just be.

What we are really looking for is what will lead us to truly experience being alive. What gets you up in the morning? What excites you? That is what makes you feel alive and that is your purpose of the moment.

5 Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.

Stop passing the buck and saying you're not where you should be because of this, that, him, or her. Every moment in your life is a choice. There is absolutely nothing you have to do but live and die. Nobody makes you do anything or feel any certain way that you haven't chosen to do.

True, there are consequences and some of them may be negative, but it's still your choice to face your fate and choose one option or the other.

6 When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.

Marriage isn't just two people choosing to be with each other every day. It's deciding that the relationship is more important than either individual. When you compromise in a relationship, you aren't conceding to the other person but to the relationship. You must work to keep it alive and above all else, or it will end.

7 God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.

Most people believe in a force or way of being that transcends what can be described by language. Try to describe bliss or Nirvana and words fall short. Most people call the indescribable "God." Some people have put a literal definition to the word and subscribe to the "man in the sky" theology, while others stay with the metaphor and believe bliss is within us all.

8 Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.

While it may seem cliché, the adage that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" is definitely fitting. Only difficult situations can lead us to growth and change.

9 The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.

When the time comes to prove your inner character, will you be up to the challenge? Will you do what needs to be done in all situations, no matter how difficult or minuscule they seem? "Perfection" is a lot of small things done well. Do all the small things in your life well and you will achieve greatness.

10 Myths are public dreams, dreams are privte myths.

There is an underlying current of belief and morality that affects us all. When we dream, our personal myths surface and can teach us what we need to learn.

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