If you're going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all. Joseph Campbell More Quotes by Joseph Campbell More Quotes From Joseph Campbell We're all seeking...the rapture of being alive. Joseph Campbell rapture seeking alive The function of the artist is the mythologization of the culture and the world. In the visual arts there were two men whose work handled mythological themes in a marvelous way: Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. Joseph Campbell men two art Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. Joseph Campbell biographies poetry inspirational The dreamer and his dream are the same...the powers personified in a dream are these that move the world. Joseph Campbell dreamer dream moving 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 victory hero world The insecure way is the secure way. Joseph Campbell secure insecure way Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy. Joseph Campbell technology inspirational civilization At such moments, you realize that you and the other are, in fact, one. It's a big realization. Survival is the second law of life. The first is that we are all one. Joseph Campbell survival law firsts It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth. Joseph Campbell dream philosophy art 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 heroic outcomes adventure This is an important point about symbols: they do not refer to historical events; they refer through historical events to spiritual or psychological principles and powers that are of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and that are everywhere. Joseph Campbell historical spiritual yesterday A real artist is the one who has learned to recognize and to render... Joseph Campbell radiance artist real The perfect human being is uninteresting. Joseph Campbell human-beings humans perfect My writing is of a very different kind from anything I've heard about. All this mythological material is out there, a big gathering of stuff, and I have been reading it for some forty- or fifty-odd years. There are various ways of handling that. The most common is to put the material together and publish a scholarly book about it. But when I'm writing, I try to get a sense of an experiential relationship to the material. In fact, I can't write unless that happens ... I don't write unless the stuff is really working on me, and my selection of material depends on what works. Joseph Campbell reading writing book It is the function of art to carry us beyond speech to experience. Joseph Campbell function speech art The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag. Joseph Campbell fate change inspirational The role of the artist I now understood as that of revealing through the world-surfaces the implicit forms of the soul, and the great agent to assist the artist was the myth. Joseph Campbell artist soul inspirational The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale-as the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea. For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source. Joseph Campbell eggs ocean creative Love is perfect kindness. Joseph Campbell kindness love-is love You have to learn to recognize your own depth. Joseph Campbell depth