How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The figure of the tyrant-monster is known to the mythologies, folk traditions, legends, and even nightmares, of the world; and his characteristics are everywhere essentially the same. He is the hoarder of the general benefit. He is the monster avid for the greedy rights of "my and mine." The havoc wrought by him is described in mythology and fairy tale as being universal throughout his domain. (14.2)
Most schools of thought believe that the whole "Give me that; it's mine" thing doesn't lead to anything good. Campbell acknowledges this pretty early on.
Quote #2
The archetypes to be discovered and assimilated are precisely those that have inspired, throughout the annals of human culture, the basic images of ritual, mythology, and vision. (17.1)
Interesting that the "discovery" part of this involves things that people have known for thousands of years. Knowledge and wisdom usually require somebody to pass it on…even if that somebody has been dead for a long time.
Quote #3
The hero has died as a modern man; but as eternal man—perfected unspecific, universal man—he has been reborn. His second solemn task and deed therefore (as Toynbee declares and as all the mythologies of mankind indicate) is to return then to us, transfigured, and teach the lesson he has learned of life renewed. (18.2)
Wisdom and knowledge don't mean much unless you can pass them on… and maybe hope that some other hero will learn from what they know.
Quote #4
It is remarkable that in this dream the basic outline of the universal mythological formula of the adventure of the hero is reproduced, to the detail. These deeply significant motifs of the perils, obstacles, and good fortunes of the way, we shall find inflected through the following pages in a hundred forms. (20.2)
This is a subtle way of equating knowledge with universal appearance. In other words, if these symbols and ideas show up over and over again in many different forms, they must how some significance worth paying attention to.
Quote #5
Like happy families, the myths and the worlds redeemed are all alike. (28.1)
That's it in a nutshell: all the wisdom of the universe contained in one sentence.
Quote #6
We shall have only to follow, therefore, a multitude of heroic figures through the classic stages of the universal adventure in order to see again what has always been revealed. This will help us to understand not only the meaning of those images for contemporary life, but also the singleness of the human spirit in its aspirations, powers, vicissitudes, and wisdom.
Campbell is back to the notion of what symbols represent. They're not ends unto themselves, but instead they show us what really matters.
Quote #7
The paradox of creation, the coming of the forms of time out of eternity, is the germinal secret of the father. It can never be quite explained. (135.1)
A big part of wisdom involves humility…or, to put it another way, knowing what you don't know.
Quote #8
The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization. (176.1)
Knowledge means growth and growth can hurt sometimes. That's really the point of all those tests and challenges on the Hero's Journey: providing growth that leads to knowledge.
Quote #9
Many failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold. The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of the soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obscenities of life. (202.2)
Hey, no one said that wisdom would be easy to find. Otherwise, we'd all be wise and those mistakes that keep dogging human life wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Quote #10
Freedom to pass back and forth across the world division, from the perspective of the apparitions of time to that of the causal deep and back—not contaminating the principles of the one with those of the other, yet permitting the mind to know the one by virtue of the other—is the talent of the master. (212.3)
Notice how easy the passage back and forth is, and how peaceful or content it can seem. Knowledge might not be much by itself, but the bliss and serenity it brings? You can't put a price on that.