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Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable.

Joseph Campbell

Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. Follow the path that is no path, follow your bliss.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Follow Life Mystery Path Problem Yourself
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Goal Heart Broken Life Nature Universe
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Big Hero Herself Life
It is not society which is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Creativity Guide Heart Save Society
Gods suppressed become devils, and often it is these devils whom we first encounter when we turn inward.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Devil Encounter God Transformation
The Fates guide those who will and drag those who won’t!
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Fate Guide Journey Path
You don’t ask what a dance means. You enjoy it. You don’t ask what the world means. You enjoy it. You don’t ask what you mean. You enjoy it.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Dance Enjoyment Meaning Yourself
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Life Privilege Time Yourself
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder. Fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Day Decision Victory Win World
When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Darkness Life Lost Need
I have found that you have only to take that one step toward the gods, and they will then take ten steps toward you. That step, the heroic first step of the journey, is out of, or over the edge of, your boundaries, and it often must be taken before you know that you will.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Boundary God Hero Journey Step Yourself
Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

End Fact Ignorance Ourselves
The problem of making the inner meet the outer of today is, of course, the function of the artist.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Artist Function Problem Spiritual
I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don’t let anyone throw you off.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Body Feeling Soul Stay Student Yourself
You have to strive every minute to get rid of the life that you have planned in order to have the life that’s waiting to be yours. Move, move, move.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Life Move Order Planning Time Wait Yourself
The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Old Oneself Proverb Skin
Whatever the hell happens, say, ‘This is what I need.’
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Hell Myself Need
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. –
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Life Old Oneself Planning Skin Willing
The conquest of fear yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every heroic adventure– fearlessness and achievement.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Achievement Adventure Courage Fear Life
And so Galahad decided that it would be a disgrace to set off on a quest with the other knights. Alone he would enter the dark forest where there was no path. This is the myth of The Hero’s Journey.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Alone Darkness Decision Grace Journey
It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Life Lying Recovery Treasure Yourself
When we talk about settling the world’s problems, we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We’re not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Break Live Ourselves Problem Talk Tree World Wrong
The goal of life is rapture. Art is the way we experience it.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Art Experience Goal Life
Follow your bliss. The heroic life is living the individual adventure. There is no security in following the call to adventure. Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Adventure Bliss Excitement Follow Life Security Yourself
Let the world be as it is and learn to rock with the waves.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Learning Wave World
Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

History Important True Yourself
Midlife is when you reach the top of the ladder and find that it was against the wrong wall.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Life Reach Wall Wrong Yourself

Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable.

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Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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