A bit of advice Given to a young Native Americana the time of his initiation:As you go the way of life, You will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.

— Joseph Campbell

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

— Joseph Campbell

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder. Fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won.

— Joseph Campbell

All life is a meditation, most of it unintentional.

— Joseph Campbell

All religions are true, but none are literal.

— Joseph Campbell

A myth is something that has never happened, but is happening all the time.

— Joseph Campbell

A mythological image that has to be explained to the brain is not working.

— Joseph Campbell

A priest is a functionary of a social sort. The society worships certain deities in a certain way, and the priest becomes ordained as a functionary to carry out that ritual. The deity to whom he is devoted is a deity that was there before he came along. But the shaman's powers are symbolized in his own familiars, deities of his own personal experience. His authority comes out of a psychological experience, not a social ordination.

— Joseph Campbell

A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow. Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life. I think ritual is terribly important.

— Joseph Campbell

Awe is what moves us forward.

— Joseph Campbell