Joseph Campbell

The adventure of the hero is the adventure of being alive

The myth does not point to a fact; the myth points beyond facts to something that informs the fact

If you are to advance, all fixed ideas must go.

The god you worship is the one you're capable of becoming.

Now, when Luke Skywalker unmasks his father, he is taking off the machine role that the father has played. The father was the uniform. That is power, the state role.

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are they should be living for.

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.

As a white candle / In a holy place, / So is the beauty / Of an aged face

The night of December 25, to which date the Nativity of Christ was ultimately assigned, was exactly that of the birth of the Persian savior Mithra, who, as an incarnation of eternal light, was born the night of the winter solstice (then dated December 25) at midnight, the instant of the turn of the year from increasing darkness to light.

I don't need faith. I have experience.

Successful marriage is leading innovative lives together, being open, non-programmed. It’s a free fall: how you handle each new thing as it comes along. As a drop of oil on the sea, you must float, using intellect and compassion to ride the waves.

The warrior’s approach is to say ‘yes’ to life: ‘yes’ to it all.

What we are really living for is the experience of life, both the pain and the pleasure.

If there were already a path, it would have to be someone else's; the whole point is to find your own way.

If you follow your bliss you will find a path laid out before you that has been waiting for you all along and you will begin to live the life you ought to be living.

Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction. Marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again. That's why it's a sacrament; You give up your personal simplicity to participate in a relationship. And when you're giving, you're not giving to the other person; you're giving to the relationship.

The myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth.

It takes courage to do what you want. Other people have a lot of plans for you... Follow your bliss.

If you follow someone else's way, you are not going to realize your potential.

Passion will move men beyond themselves, beyond their shortcomings, beyond their failures.

If you're going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.