The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
by Parker · 30 things on Twos
- The only true wisdom lives far from mankind, out in the great loneliness, and can be reached only through suffering. Privation and suffering alone open the mind to all that is hidden to others
- Technology is not going to save us. Our computers, our tools, our machines are not enough. We have to rely on our intuition, our true being
- By overcoming the dark passions, the hero symbolizes our ability to control the irrational savage within us
- The ultimate aim of the quest must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but the wisdom and the power to serve others
- One of the many distinctions between the celebrity and the hero is that one lives only for self while the other acts to redeem society
- Teach by example
- From death comes life. From sacrifice, bliss
- Marriage is not a simple love affair, it’s an ordeal, and the ordeal is the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two have become one
- Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in the service of man. When man is in the service of society, you have a monster state, and that’s what is threatening the world at this minute
- Sin is simply getting out of touch with the harmony of the world
- Passion destroys reason
- Realize what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experience awe before this mystery
- We have today to learn to get back into accord with the wisdom of nature and realize again our brotherhood with the animals and with the water and the sea
- The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to earth
- At the darkest moment comes the light
- Identify your notion of yourself with the positive, rather than with the negative
- You don’t teach unless you are asked. You don’t force your mission down people’s throats
- You yourself are participating in the evil, or you are not alive. Whatever you do is evil for somebody. This is one of the ironies of the whole creation
- All life is sorrowful
- Wherever you are if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time
- You must have an hour or so a day to run your simple experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen
- Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you
- You don’t have to die physically. All you have to do is die spiritually and be reborn into a larger way of living
- When we quite primarily thinking about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness
- A good way to learn is to find a book that seems to be dealing with the problems that you’re now dealing with
- Each of us is a completely unique creature and our gift to the world will come out of our own experience and fulfillment of our own potentialities, not someone else’s
- You can’t have creativity unless you leave behind the bounded, the fixed, all the rules
- A marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you’re not married
- No one is in a position to disqualify his enemy’s way of life
- When you can get rid of fear and desire and just get back to where you’re becoming, you’ve hit the spot