No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attempts to keep winter from descending; on the contrary: the rites all prepare the community to endure, together with the rest of nature, the season of the terrible cold.
Joseph CampbellRead
Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of vocabularies of reason and coercion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mythological symbols connect deeply with human emotions and experiences that cannot be fully expressed through rational language.
In this quote, Joseph Campbell highlights the profound impact of mythological symbols on human consciousness. He suggests that these symbols evoke feelings and experiences that go beyond rational thinking and societal norms, enabling individuals to connect with aspects of life that are inherently mystical and deeply rooted in our shared human experience.
Themes
MythologySymbolsEmotionExperienceLanguage
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the relevance of myths in contemporary culture, one might use this quote to illustrate the emotional depth of myths.
More from Joseph Campbell
All quotes →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 CampbellRead
Christianity isn’t moving people’s lives today. What’s moving people’s lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It’s a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn’t even an ideal that anybody’s fighting for.
Joseph CampbellRead
Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end. The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth—that is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.
Joseph CampbellRead
The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
Joseph CampbellRead
And if there was no Fall, what then of the need for Redemption? What god was offended and by whom? Some especially touchy cave bear whose skull had been improperly enshrined?
Joseph CampbellRead
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We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.
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Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow.
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I look at the world and I see absurdity all around me. People do strange things constantly, to the point that, for the most part, we manage not to see it. That's why I love coffee shops and public places - I mean, they're all out there.
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A man is never as big as when he is on his knees to help a child.
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She is very clever, too clever for a woman. She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness.
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