Joseph Campbell Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy. The Power of Myth

2. The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag.

3. How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. (92) Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

4. Just as anyone who listens to the muse will hear, you can write out of your own intention or out of inspiration. There is such a thing. It comes up and talks. And those who have heard deeply the rhythms and hymns of the gods, can recite those hymns in such a way that the gods will be attracted. The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work

5. Now I found it in writing sentences. You can write that sentence in a way that you would have written it last year. Or you can write it in the way of the exquisite nuance that is sriting in your mind now. But that takes a lot of ... waiting for the right word to come. The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work

6. 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.

7. Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history or science, it is killed. The living images become only remote facts of a distant time or sky. The Hero With a Thousand Faces

8. Writer’s block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows. A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

9. You become mature when you become the authority of your own life. A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living