--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Whether you call someone a hero or a…" description: "\"Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.\" — Joseph Campbell" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png" --- # Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all… ![“Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.” quote by Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png) > “Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.” [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Labels of hero or monster depend on perspective and focus of awareness. **In simple terms:** Hero or monster is a matter of viewpoint. Key Takeaway Recognize bias in judgments. Themes perception morality mythology Mood thoughtful inquisitive Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - media analysis - conflict resolution - personal growth Key Concepts subjectivity heroic archetype cultural lens Questions to Reflect On - Whose perspective defines the hero? - How does focus shape moral judgment? A Different Perspective Over‑simplification can ignore nuance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Consciousness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/consciousness/) [Focus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/focus/) [Focus Consciousness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/focus-consciousness-712495/) [Hero](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hero/) [Hero Monster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hero-monster-712496/) [May](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/may/) [Monster Relative](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/monster-relative-712497/) [Monsters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/monsters/) [Philosophy of Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy-of-mind/) [Power of myth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/power-of-myth/) [Relative](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/relative/) ## Related quotes > [“Monster' is a relative term; to a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-crichton/monster-is-a-relative-term-to-a-canary-a-cat-is-a-monster-we-re-just/) [Michael Crichton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-crichton/) > [If you follow your bliss...the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/if-you-follow-your-bliss-the-life-that-you-ought-to-be-living-is-the/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [When your mind is simply trapped by the image out there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/when-your-mind-is-simply-trapped-by-the-image-out-there-so-that-you/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [I think it's important to live life with a knowledge of its mystery, and of your own mystery.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/i-think-it-s-important-to-live-life-with-a-knowledge-of-its-mystery/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/you-must-have-a-room-or-a-certain-hour-or-so-a-day-where-you-don-t-2/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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 all of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/shakespeare-said-that-art-is-a-mirror-held-up-to-nature-and-that-s-2/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? Of course it cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam about. All you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sri-nisargadatta-maharaj/how-can-an-unsteady-mind-make-itself-steady-of-course-it-cannot-it-is/) [Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sri-nisargadatta-maharaj/) > [Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/your-own-path-you-make-with-every-step-you-take-that-s-why-it-s-your/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [Our life evokes our character and you find out more about yourself as you go on.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/our-life-evokes-our-character-and-you-find-out-more-about-yourself-as/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [You want to know yourself. For this keep steadily in the focus of consciousness, the only clue you have: your certainty of being. Be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sri-nisargadatta-maharaj/you-want-to-know-yourself-for-this-keep-steadily-in-the-focus-of/) [Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sri-nisargadatta-maharaj/) > [The experience of Eternity right here and now, is the function of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-experience-of-eternity-right-here-and-now-is-the-function-of-life-2/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-demon-that-you-can-swallow-gives-you-it-s-power-and-the-greater/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [When you follow your bliss, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/when-you-follow-your-bliss-you-begin-to-meet-people-who-are-in-the/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The inner world is the world of your requirements and your energies and your structure and your possibilities that meets the outer world. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-inner-world-is-the-world-of-your-requirements-and-your-energies/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [“Know that you are God/the Universe and that anywhere you aim/focus your consciousness you create reality in one of the infinite physical and nonphysical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/russell-anthony-gibbs/know-that-you-are-god-the-universe-and-that-anywhere-you-aim-focus/) [Russell Anthony Gibbs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/russell-anthony-gibbs/) ## More by Joseph Campbell > [If a person does not listen to the demands of their own spiritual and heart life and insists on a certain program, you're going…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/if-a-person-does-not-listen-to-the-demands-of-their-own-spiritual-and/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The last act in the biography of the hero is that of the death or departure.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-last-act-in-the-biography-of-the-hero-is-that-of-the-death-or/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-privilege-of-a-lifetime-is-being-who-you-are/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The eternal principle, which never was born, never will die: it is in all things: it is in you now. You are the wave…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-eternal-principle-which-never-was-born-never-will-die-it-is-in/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [How do you find the divine power in yourself? The word enthusiasm means 'filled with a god,' so what makes you enthusiastic? Follow it.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/how-do-you-find-the-divine-power-in-yourself-the-word-enthusiasm/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [What we're learning in our schools is not the wisdom of life. We're learning technologies, we're getting information. There's a curious reluctance on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/what-we-re-learning-in-our-schools-is-not-the-wisdom-of-life-we-re/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [ The fall \[of your soul\] from perfection into duality...was naturally followed by the discovery of the duality of good and evil...This is the Biblical… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-fall-of-your-soul-from-perfection-into-duality-was-naturally/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [So that's what destiny is: simply the fulfillment of the potentialites of the energies in your own system.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/so-that-s-what-destiny-is-simply-the-fulfillment-of-the-potentialites/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [Your ego is your embodiment and your self is your potentiality and that's what you listen to when you listen for the voice of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/your-ego-is-your-embodiment-and-your-self-is-your-potentiality-and/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [When you follow your bliss a kind of track opens up, that's always been there, waiting for you. And the life that you should…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/when-you-follow-your-bliss-a-kind-of-track-opens-up-that-s-always/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The best we can do is lean towards the light.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-best-we-can-do-is-lean-towards-the-light/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [I think of mythology as the homeland of the muses, the inspirers of art, the inspirers of poetry. To see life as a poem…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/i-think-of-mythology-as-the-homeland-of-the-muses-the-inspirers-of/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [When you are falling --- Dive!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/when-you-are-falling-dive/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [We're all seeking...the rapture of being alive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/we-re-all-seeking-the-rapture-of-being-alive/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/both-the-artist-and-the-lover-know-that-perfection-is-not-loveable-it/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) [Explore all 711 Joseph Campbell quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) ## More Consciousness quotes > [“You're never alone if you're with your soul.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerard-armond-powell/you-re-never-alone-if-you-re-with-your-soul/) [Gerard Armond Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerard-armond-powell/) > [“I now argue that entry into Upper Palaeolithic caves was probably seen as virtually indistinguishable from entry into the mental vortex that leads to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-david-lewis-williams/i-now-argue-that-entry-into-upper-palaeolithic-caves-was-probably/) [James David Lewis-Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-david-lewis-williams/) > [How wonderful it would be to scatter words as they rise to consciousness, to let them lie where they fall.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joanna-scott/how-wonderful-it-would-be-to-scatter-words-as-they-rise-to/) [Joanna Scott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joanna-scott/) > [“People and situations always show us what we need to see and learn about ourselves, and when we take responsibility for our own feelings,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eliza-mada-dalian/people-and-situations-always-show-us-what-we-need-to-see-and-learn/) [Eliza Mada Dalian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eliza-mada-dalian/) > [With the realization of God comes all power. If the little wave knew that behind it is the great ocean, it could say, "I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paramahansa-yogananda/with-the-realization-of-god-comes-all-power-if-the-little-wave-knew/) [Paramahansa Yogananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paramahansa-yogananda/) > [We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-biko/we-do-not-want-to-be-reminded-that-it-is-we-the-indigenous-people-who/) [Steven Biko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-biko/) > [It is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bohm/it-is-proposed-that-a-form-of-free-dialogue-may-well-be-one-of-the/) [David Bohm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bohm/) > [“Entropy is the normal state of consciousness—a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable. To avoid this condition, people are naturally eager to fill…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/entropy-is-the-normal-state-of-consciousness-a-condition-that-is/) [Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/) > [The purpose is to be in gratitude forever. Live with applied consciousness, prosperity will break through the walls, flood you with it. You do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harbhajan-singh-yogi/the-purpose-is-to-be-in-gratitude-forever-live-with-applied/) [Harbhajan Singh Yogi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harbhajan-singh-yogi/) > [“No one has any right to tell you that the way you perceive yourself is wrong. Because by doing so, they also discourage the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kamand-kojouri/no-one-has-any-right-to-tell-you-that-the-way-you-perceive-yourself/) [Kamand Kojouri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kamand-kojouri/) > [A language possesses utility only insofar as it can construct conventional boundaries. A language of no boundaries is no language at all, and thus…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-wilber/a-language-possesses-utility-only-insofar-as-it-can-construct/) [Ken Wilber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-wilber/) > [So many people are passive participants in their very short time of having a consciousness, and those who aren't inspire me. Like Malala Yousafzai…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dylan-gelulla/so-many-people-are-passive-participants-in-their-very-short-time-of/) [Dylan Gelulla](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dylan-gelulla/) > [Floating in and out of consciousness...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/drake/floating-in-and-out-of-consciousness/) [Drake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/drake/) > [“The vision teller tells the vision to unguarded minds' of prey. The programmed.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/t-f-hodge/the-vision-teller-tells-the-vision-to-unguarded-minds-of-prey-the/) [T.F. Hodge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/t-f-hodge/) > [Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rollo-may/human-freedom-involves-our-capacity-to-pause-between-the-stimulus-and/) [Rollo May](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rollo-may/) [Browse all 6,062 Consciousness quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/consciousness/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joseph Campbell" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-monster-is-all-relative-to-where/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Consciousness" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-monster-is-all-relative-to-where/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cd/joseph-campbell-300_consciousness_whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-mon_847585.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.” — Joseph Campbell", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Joseph Campbell", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Whether you call someone a hero...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-monster-is-all-relative-to-where/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/whether-you-call-someone-a-hero-or-a-monster-is-all-relative-to-where/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```