Favorite Joseph Campbell Quotations

Are you looking for a quotation that you can't quite place? Trying to track down a hard-to-find publication? Here, folks can help you find the answers, or discuss ways for you to discover them for yourself.

Moderators: Clemsy, Martin_Weyers, Cindy B.

Locked
Cindy B.
Working Associate
Posts: 4719
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:49 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by Cindy B. »

Andreas wrote:Yeap, what I meant was if that interview actually happened or if it is in any way paraphrased. Anyway since none complained, I take it that it is accurate. :)
Thinking Allowed was a PBS production in the States. The source is reliable, guys, as is. :)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

Yes. In fact, the website is Mishlove's. That's a legit interview.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

JamesN.
Associate
Posts: 2187
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:46 am
Location: Nashville, Tn.

Post by JamesN. »

I extracted this quote from that same interview of Mishlove with Joseph Campbell which I thought was a great example of what he was saying about understanding how he defined " Bliss ": :idea:

CAMPBELL: How do you find the divine power in yourself? The word enthusiasm means "filled with a god," that's what it means. So what makes you enthusiastic? Follow it. That's been my advice to young people who ask me, "What shall I do?" I taught once in a boys' prep school. That's the moment for young boys -- or it used to be; I don't know what's going on now -- when they had to decide their life courses. You know, where are they going? And they're caught with excitement. This one wants to study art, this one poetry, this one anthropology. But dad says study law; that's where the money is. OK, that's the decision. And you know what my answer would be -- where your enthusiasm is. So I have a little word: follow your bliss. The bliss is the message of God to yourself. That's where your life is.
Just thought I would add that as a compliment. It is a great interview. The " Michael Toms " series is also another set of interviews worth mentioning. :wink:
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

Nermin
Associate
Posts: 520
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:31 pm
Location: London, Britain

Post by Nermin »

'For the mythological hero is the champion not of things become but of things becoming; the dragon to be slain by him is precisely the monster of the status quo: Holdfast, the keeper of the past.

From obscurity the hero emerges, but the enemy is great and conspicuous in the seat of power; he is enemy, dragon, tyrant, because he turns to his own advantage the authority of his position. He is Holdfast not because he keeps the past but because he keeps.

The tyrant is proud, and therein resides his doom. He is proud because he thinks of his strength as his own; thus he is in the clown role, as a mistaker of shadow for substance; it is his destiny to be tricked. The mythological hero, reappearing from the darkness that is the source of the shapes of the day, brings a knowledge of the secret of the tyrant's doom. With a gesture as simple as the pressing of a button, he annihilates the impressive configuration.

The hero-deed is a continuous shattering of the crystallizations of the moment.'
from the Hero with a Thousand Faces, the Transformations
True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

Good one, Nermin. I'll have to use that in my class. We discuss the significance of the dragon archetype often.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

CarmelaBear
Associate
Posts: 4087
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2002 3:51 pm
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Post by CarmelaBear »

Thank you Nermin. Powerful and inspiring.

~

Ercan2121
Associate
Posts: 824
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:15 am
Location: Istanbul

Post by Ercan2121 »

Thank you all.
Never knew and never thought about such transformations in the past.
These should be the most interesting passages in Campbell's book :)

Nermin
Associate
Posts: 520
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:31 pm
Location: London, Britain

Post by Nermin »

Sacrifice is bliss, JC also tells but may-I ask to what extent?
True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts

Andreas
Associate
Posts: 2274
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:07 am

Post by Andreas »

From POM.
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. ~Campbell
Hopefully I haven't posted that one before. :p
“To live is enough.” ― Shunryu Suzuki

Nermin
Associate
Posts: 520
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:31 pm
Location: London, Britain

Post by Nermin »

Very helpful this one, Andreas -though İ cannot comment
more on my Cyanogen :-)
True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts

JamesN.
Associate
Posts: 2187
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:46 am
Location: Nashville, Tn.

Post by JamesN. »

I just took this off of the home page quote section: :idea:
We are the sensing organs of the Earth. We are the senses of the universe. We have it all right here within us. And the deities that we once thought were out there, we now know, were projected out of ourselves. They are the products of our human imagination seeking to interpret, one way or another, the mysteries of the universe....


Joseph Campbell
Thou Art That
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

JamesN.
Associate
Posts: 2187
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:46 am
Location: Nashville, Tn.

Post by JamesN. »

Another gem posted on the home page: :)
Wherever the hero may wander, whatever he may do, he is ever in the presence of his own essence � for he has the perfected eye to see. There is no separateness. Thus, just as the way of social participation may lead in the end to a realization of the All in the individual, so that of exile brings the hero to the Self in all.


Joseph Campbell
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

This quote is roaming around the internet and is attributed to campbell, but we can't find its source! I'd love to use it for the new JCF education initiative I'm working on, but even David can't find where it's from. I haven't a lot of hope! But maybe one of your guys has the answer! Myrtle! Are you still out there? :-)
“The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves.”
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Myrtle
Associate
Posts: 177
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:19 pm
Location: U.S.

Post by Myrtle »

Hi Clemsy,

I've been looking around, but so far I have not been able to find it either. I'll keep looking and let you know.

Myrtle

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

Thanks, Myrtle! David couldn't find it, Stephen has been on it and you usually find stuff right off the bat. I suspect it might be internet spawn. Too bad because it's a great quote!
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Locked