It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.
Joseph CampbellI have found that you have only to take that one step toward the gods, and they will then take ten steps toward you. That step, the heroic first step of the journey, is out of, or over the edge of, your boundaries, and it often must be taken before you know that you will.
Joseph CampbellShakespeare said that art is a mirror held up to nature. And thatโs what it is. The nature is your nature, and all of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring to something in you. When your mind is trapped by the image out there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread the image.
Joseph CampbellIf you want to know what a given society believes in, look at what its largest buildings are devoted to.
Joseph CampbellLife will always be sorrowful. We can't change it, but we can change our attitude toward it.
Joseph CampbellDragons, you know, we have a good deal of biology and zoology about the dragon; we know their habits. The dragon tends to guard things, and he usually has these guarded in a cave... Now dragons don't know what to do either with beautiful girls or gold, but they just hang on. There are people like this. We call them creeps.
Joseph Campbell