QuoteProject
Suddenly you’re ripped into being alive. And life is pain, and life is suffering, and life is horror, but my god you’re alive and its spectacular.
Joseph Campbell
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Life includes suffering and challenges, but the experience of being alive is beautiful and awe-inspiring.

Joseph Campbell articulates the dual nature of existence, acknowledging that life is fraught with pain and suffering while simultaneously celebrating the extraordinary gift of being alive. This perspective invites us to embrace the full spectrum of our experiences, recognizing that even amidst hardship, there is profound beauty and wonder in simply being.

Themes

LifePainSufferingBeautyExistence

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about resilience, one might use this quote to illustrate the beauty of overcoming challenges.

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

The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not "get over" the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.
Elisabeth Kubler-RossRead
Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip.
Dean KarnazesRead
I know what it's like to see one's mother go through the agony of death and be unable to help; there is no consolation. We all have to bear such heavy burdens, for they are unalterably linked to life.
Albert EinsteinRead
It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.
George OrwellRead
Live for each second without hesitation
Elton JohnRead
Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.
Madeleine L'EngleRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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