Voice

Joseph Campbell

1904–1987Comparative mythologyContemporary (1950 – today)Person

Joseph Campbell was an American writer on comparative mythology and religion who taught literature at Sarah Lawrence College for 38 years. His book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) set out the 'monomyth', a shared pattern of the hero's journey across the world's myths. His conversations with Bill Moyers, broadcast after his death as The Power of Myth (1988), made the phrase 'follow your bliss' widely known.

References

Works

Quotes (3)

“Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.”
— Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth (1988, with Bill Moyers), p. 120; checked on the Joseph Campbell Foundation site
Watch on YouTube (4:03–4:10) ↗
Watch on YouTube: Randy Pausch's Last Lecture ↗Randy Pausch discusses this idea
VerifiedsourceMaxim: Pursue what is meaningful, not what is merely profitable.
“The very cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are looking for.”
— Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion (1991), ed. Diane K. Osbon, 'In the Field', from her notes of his talk; checked in the Internet Archive scan of the HarperCollins 1991 edition. The popular form "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek" is not found in his works; Quote Investigator's earliest print instance is 2004
Watch on YouTube: Jocko Willink's advice on facing challenges ↗Jocko Willink on moving toward the challenge (fan compilation)
VerifiedsourceMaxim: Do what is right, even when you are afraid.
“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: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), introduction; p. 30 in the 1968 Princeton edition; checked in the Internet Archive scan of the 1949 Princeton first edition, which reads "fellow man" (the Joseph Campbell Foundation site has "fellow men")
VerifiedsourceMaxim: Find meaning in the struggle itself.