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 CAMPBELLWhen 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.
More Joseph Campbell Quotes
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Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.
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Change the focus of the eye. When you have done that, then the end of the world as you formerly knew it will have occurred, and you will experience the radiance of the divine presence everywhere, here and now.
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You’ve got to find the force inside you.
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The myth does not point to a fact; the myth points beyond facts to something that informs the fact.
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You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.
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Whatever the hell happens, say, ‘This is what I need.’
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If there were already a path, it would have to be someone else’s; the whole point is to find your own way.
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The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.
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You’ve got to say yes to this miracle of life as it is, not on condition that it follow your rules.
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The Fates guide those who will and drag those who won’t!
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The dreamer and his dream are the same…the powers personified in a dream are these that move the world.
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The conquest of fear yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every heroic adventure– fearlessness and achievement.
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Eternity is not future or past. Eternity is a dimension of now.
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I think of compassion as the fundamental religious experience and, unless that is there, you have nothing.
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Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
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The goal of life is rapture. Art is the way we experience it.
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No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities.
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If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.
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Respect your curses, for they are the instruments of your destiny.
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Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end.
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The quest for fire occurred not because anyone knew what the practical uses for fire would be, but because it was fascinating.
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Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.
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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.
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If you want the whole thing, the gods will give it to you. But you must be ready for it.
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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.
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Love is the burning point of life, and since all life is sorrowful, so is love. The stronger the love, the more the pain. Love itself is pain, you might say -the pain of being truly alive.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL