Mythology Quotes by Joseph Campbell

Mythology is the womb of man's initiation to life and death.

— Joseph Campbell

“Heresy is the life of a mythology and orthodoxy is the death.”

— Joseph Campbell

Religon is misunderstood mythology

— Joseph Campbell

Eternity is not future or past. Eternity is a dimension of now.

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology is the womb of mankind's initiation to life and death.

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology helps you to identify the mysteries of the energies pouring through you. Therein lies your eternity.

— Joseph Campbell

“Humor is the touchstone of the truly mythological as distinct from the more literal-minded and sentimental theological mood.”

— Joseph Campbell

“Mythology, in other words, is psychology misread as biography, history, and cosmology.”

— Joseph Campbell

Every religion, every mythology is true in this sense: It is true as metaphorical of the human and cosmic mystery.

— Joseph Campbell

“The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become, because he is.”

— Joseph Campbell

A one sentence definition of mythology? Mythology is what we call someone else's religion.

— Joseph Campbell

When your mind is simply trapped by the image out there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have…

— Joseph Campbell

It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.

— Joseph Campbell

Essentially, mythologies are enormous poems that are renditions of insights, giving some sense of the marvel, the miracle and wonder of life.

— Joseph Campbell

“in America we have people from all kinds of backgrounds, all in a cluster, together, and consequently law has become very important…

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion. And religion may, in a sense, be understood as popular…

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology tells us that where you stumble, there your treasure is ... The world is a match for us, and we’re a…

— Joseph Campbell

In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dreams.

— Joseph Campbell

Mythologies, in other words, mythologies and religions are great poems and, when recognized as such, point infallibly through things and events to…

— Joseph Campbell

Through dreams a door is opened to mythology, since myths are of the nature of dreams, and that, as dreams arise from…

— Joseph Campbell

I think of mythology as the homeland of the muses, the inspirers of art, the inspirers of poetry. To see life as…

— Joseph Campbell

There are now no more horizons. And with the dissolution of horizons we have experienced and are experiencing collisions, terrific collisions, not…

— Joseph Campbell

Shakespeare said that art is a mirror held up to nature. And that’s what it is. The nature is your nature, and…

— Joseph Campbell

“But if we are to grasp the full value of the materials, we must note that myths are not exactly comparable to…

— Joseph Campbell

“One finds the same basic mythological themes in all the religions of the world, from the most primitive to the most sophisticated,…

— Joseph Campbell

I think of mythology as a function of biology; the energies of the body are the energies that move the imagination. These…

— Joseph Campbell

“A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since…

— Joseph Campbell

Thinking in mythological terms helps to put you in accord with the inevitables of this vale of tears. You learn to recognize…

— Joseph Campbell

“In marriage you are not sacrificing yourself to the other person. You are sacrificing yourself to the relationship. You become mature when…

— Joseph Campbell

“The battlefield is symbolic of the field of life, where every creature lives on the death of another. A realization of the…

— Joseph Campbell

“All of the great mythologies and much of the mythic story-telling of the world are from the male point of view. When…

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology is often defined as 'other peoples' religions', religion can be thought of as misinterpreted mythology.

— Joseph Campbell

When you see the earth from the moon, you don't see any divisions there of nations or states. This might be the…

— Joseph Campbell

The images of Myth are reflections of Spiritual and Depth potentialities of every one of us. Through contemplating those we evoke those…

— Joseph Campbell

If you live with the myths in your mind, you will find yourself always in mythological situations. They cover everything that can…

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology is composed by poets out of their insights and realizations. Mythologies are not invented; they are found. You can no more…

— Joseph Campbell

The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale-as the…

— Joseph Campbell

When you look at that nature world it becomes an icon, it becomes a holy picture that speaks of the origins of…

— Joseph Campbell

For those in whom a local mythology still works, there is an experience both of accord with the social order, and of…

— Joseph Campbell

Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate…

— Joseph Campbell