Anything you do has a still point. When you are in that still point, you can perform maximally. Joseph Campbell More Quotes by Joseph Campbell More Quotes From Joseph Campbell This death to the logic of emotional commitments of our chance moment in the world of space and time, this recognition of, the shift of our emphasis to, the universal life that throbs and celebrates its victory in the very kiss of our own annihilation, this amor fati, 'love of fate,' love of the fate that is inevitably death, constitutes the experience of the tragic art. Joseph Campbell fatecommitmentart The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight. Joseph Campbell delightswimwater Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion. And religion may, in a sense, be understood as popular misunderstanding of mythology. (8) Joseph Campbell realinspirationalpeople Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths. We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. I have bought this wonderful machine — a computer ... it seems to me to be an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy. Joseph Campbell machineswaitingdream 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. Joseph Campbell writinginspirationalyears If you are falling....dive. Joseph Campbell ifsinspirationalfall Is the god the source, or is the god a human manner of conceiving of the force and energy that supports the world? In our tradition God is a male. This male and female differentiation is made, however, within the field of time and space, the field of duality. If God is beyond duality, you cannot say that God is a "He." You cannot say God is a "She." You cannot say God is an "It." (18) Joseph Campbell spacegodinspirational Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies. Joseph Campbell atheistreligiousinspirational Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths. Joseph Campbell businessdreaminspirational If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor. Joseph Campbell wantinspirationalworld The world, as we know it, is coming to an end. The world as the center of the universe, the world divided from the heavens, the world bound by horizons in which love is reserved for members of the in-group: that is the world that is passing away. Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and complacency are coming to an end. Joseph Campbell ignorancelove-isheaven We save the world by being alive ourselves. Joseph Campbell aliveinspirationalworld Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. Joseph Campbell couragemorninginspirational Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold. Joseph Campbell goldinspirationalfall The usual marriage in traditional cultures was arranged for by the families. It wasn't a person-to-person decision at all. . . . In the Middle Ages, that was the kind of marriage that was sanctified by the Church. And so the troubadour idea of real person-to-person Amor was very dangerous. . . . It is in direct contradiction to the way of the Church. The word AMOR spelt backwards is ROMA, the Roman Catholic Church, which was justifying marriages that were simply political and social in their character. And so came this movement validating individual choice, what I call following your bliss. Joseph Campbell individual-choicerealcharacter This is an essential experience of any mystical realization. You die to your flesh and are born into your spirit. You identify yourself with the consciousness and life of which your body is but the vehicle. You die to the vehicle and become identified in your consciousness with that of which the vehicle is but the carrier. That is the God. Joseph Campbell essentialsbodyrealization The Navajo have that wonderful image of what they call the pollen path. The Navajo say, 'Oh, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I'm on the pollen path.' Joseph Campbell pollenpathwonderful You have to have a feeling for where you are. You've got only one life to live and you don't have to live it for six people. Pay attention to it. Joseph Campbell feelingsattentionpeople What we are really living for is the experience of life, both the pain and the pleasure. Joseph Campbell paincourageinspirational We can safely say, therefore, that whereas some moralists may find it possible to make a distinction between two spheres and reigns-one of flesh, the other of the spirit, one of time, the other of eternity-where ever love arises such definitions vanish, and a sense of life awakens in which all such oppositions are at one. Joseph Campbell definitionsmaytwo
