Joseph John Campbell was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell’s best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.
Since the publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell’s theories have been applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. His philosophy has been summarized by his own often repeated phrase: “Follow your bliss.” He gained recognition in Hollywood when George Lucas credited Campbell’s work as influencing his Star Wars saga.
Campbell’s approach to folklore topics such as myth and his influence on popular culture has been the subject of criticism, including from folklorists, academics in folklore studies. (via Wikipedia)
Lets read a few of the great quotes by Joseph Campbell:
On Love:
On Life:
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.
Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.
Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
On Death:
The conquest of the fear of death is the recovery of life’s joy. One can experience an unconditional affirmation of life only when one has accepted death, not as contrary to life, but as an aspect of life. Life in its becoming is always shedding death, and on the point of death. The conquest of fear yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every heroic adventure fearlessness and achievement.
On Happiness:
The way to find out about happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you are really happy not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what is called following your bliss.
On God:
God is a metaphor for that which trancends all levels of intellectual thought. It’s as simple as that.
God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, ‘Ah’
All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.
God is Within You You yourself are the creator. If you find that place within you from which you brought this thing about, you will be able to live with it and affirm it, perhaps even enjoy it, as your life.
On Religion:
Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.