QuoteProject
When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
Joseph Campbell
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True transformation occurs when we shift our focus from self-interest to the greater good.

In this quote, Joseph Campbell emphasizes the profound change that happens when individuals prioritize the well-being of others over their own self-preservation. This shift in consciousness is described as 'heroic' because it requires overcoming the instinctual drive to protect oneself, allowing for deeper connections with others and a more meaningful existence beyond one's personal desires.

Themes

TransformationConsciousnessSelflessnessHeroismService

In practice

Example use cases

In a graduation speech about the importance of community service.

More from Joseph Campbell

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
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

Similar quotes

Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.
Franklin P. AdamsRead
Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
India believes that the world is a family, and the best means of resolution is shared discourse. A family is shaped by love and is not transactional; a family is nurtured by consideration, not greed; a family believes in harmony not jealousy.
Sushma SwarajRead
We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.
Alan WattsRead
It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.
Evelyn WaughRead
The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy. The problem comes when healthy criticism is replaced with more destructive intimidation and sanctions.
Sandra Day O'ConnorRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.