Hero S Journey Quotes

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
― Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”
― Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know. The hero journey is a symbol that binds, in the original sense of the word, two distant ideas, the spiritual quest of the ancients with the modern search for identity, always the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find.”
― Phil Cousineau

“At one time or another we are all called to leave the safety of our homes, the certainty of what we know, the illusions of who we are. Not everyone will heed this call, of course. And those who do will risk losing themselves completely. But if we choose to ignore the invitation, we risk never knowing who we might have become. We risk dying without knowing what it is to live.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“Every hero needs to venture into the Belly of the Beast. It’s essential to be devoured at least once by the monster. The hero never begins as a hero. He becomes a hero, and that entails the annihilation of his own, unheroic, former self. The hero always undergoes a metamorphosis, from ordinary to extraordinary. The hero, like the snake, sheds its old skin and takes on a new form. To change, you must enter a sacred space, a transformational space. Nothing ever changes in the ordinary space. The familiar world keeps you the same. It has no alchemical power. If you are confined in the same old world, you remain the same old person. You must cross the threshold into the New World.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“This person is (pick one):
1. on a perilous journey from which we can learn much when he or she returns;
2. possessed by (pick one)
a) the gods,
b) God (that is, a prophet),
c) some bad spirits, demons, or devils,
d) the Devil,
3. a witch
4. bewitched (variant of 2);
5. bad, and must be isolated and punished,
6. ill, and must be isolated and treated by (pick one):
a) purging and leeches,
b) removing the uterus if the person has one,
c) electric shock to the brain,
d) cold sheets wrapped tight around the body,
e) Thorazine or Stelazine;
7. ill, and must spend the next seven years talking about it;
8. a victim of society's low tolerance of deviant behavior;
9. sane in an insane world;
10. on a perilous journey from which he or she may never return.”
― Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted

“When the hero is ready, the mentor appears.”
― Will Craig, Living the Hero's Journey

“Prometheus stole fire from the gods. We are each the heirs of that divine spark. Used wisely, the spark fuels one's journey and lights the way. Treated carelessly, the spark consumes its owner and everything in its path.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“But I don’t think fighting monsters is all that courageous. I think the ultimate act of courage is standing still in the face of a monster. Courage is looking closely enough into its jaws to see it for what it is: an illusion. The monster isn’t real. It’s your fear of the monster that is real. And just about anything in life can look like a monster if the light is just right.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“Sometimes a journey is not about the traveler. It is not about a destination. It is about the bringing together of worlds. It is about lighting a path.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“His mission is not to wait until the world ends, but to find a way to the other side before it does. To prop open the door before it can be locked. To tie a suture before the fatal wound is made. To let in the moonlight before the sun is allowed to rise.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“First Law of Heroics.” The Monaciello grinned up at a confused September. “Someone has to tell you it’s impossible, or the Quest can’t go on. Your friend has volunteered herself as a Non-Euclidean Companion, which is also necessary to proceed to the next stage.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

“I believe we should demand the things our souls need. And not compromise. Not push these desires to the slagheap because we’ve been told they serve no useful purpose in our adult lives. Not tell our souls to go to their rooms because we are having this party for adults called life, and they will just be in the way because we’ll be talking about things the soul wouldn’t understand anyway. Not say it’s okay if we aren’t granted these things we need, because other people’s lives suck too.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“All of life is constantly in motion. Desire keeps us moving. Desire inspires us to be brave, to dream, to create. Desire is our divine connection with the creative force of the universe.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“You can’t run alongside your grown children with sunscreen and ChapStick on their hero’s journey.” -- Anne Lamott, “Twelve Truths I Learned from Writing to Life”
― Anne Lamott

“Questing Physicks isn’t like the Quiet and Queer branches. You can’t do it at home in a comfortable chair—you have to be out in the thick of the business, with your tools on your belt and your heart on your sleeve!”
― Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

“The ultimate task is to get people to see their own lives in terms of the hero’s journey and become heroes themselves. Imagine a Heroic World where everyone is a hero. It would be so much better than the Cowards’ World humanity currently inhabits. People must be able to see where they themselves are on the great journey. Are they stuck? Are they going backwards? What’s blocking their progress? Society should be about making everyone a hero, a god, and showing them exactly how to do it. We start out from the archetypal level of story (Mythos) and end by teaching philosophy, science and mathematics (Logos). Things succeed when everyone gets the message fast, it resonates with them, and they go out and spread it on their own initiative.”
― Thomas Stark, Holenmerism and Nullibism: The Two Faces of the Holographic Universe

“It’s time to depart on the long, hard road to find our Higher Selves. It’s time to separate ourselves from the ordinary world that has ensnared us with its trivial concerns and easy, disposable pleasures that reach their sell-by date almost as soon as they are touched. It’s time to cross the threshold that separates the world of Common Day from the extraordinary world. The hero’s path is right there in front of us, all marked out for us, yet it’s a path that few will be taking. You want an extraordinary life? Then what are you going to do that is extraordinary? You want to be a hero? Then do something heroic. Take that first step into the Unknown Country and begin the process of transforming yourself from base metal into gold. The hero monomyth is the supreme act of alchemy that takes the prima materia (the primary material) – ourselves – and purifies and perfects it until it shines, glints and gleams like the gold of God.”
― Michael Faust, How to Become a Hero

“Your attention please. This is not a rehearsal. This is not a drill. This is your life. Make the most of it. Become a hero. Bring the ultimate cosmic journey – your journey – to its appointed end. Become God.”
― Michael Faust, How to Become a Hero

“The higher forces that guide our lives are not always gentle, but their intention is ever to instruct.”
― Sol Luckman, Cali the Destroyer

“Suddenly the realisation dawned on me; this was my own doing, I'd been forever bored of my little life; I was no idol, no heroine, nobody.”
― Jennifer West, The Legend of Acacia Vitak

“Backyard adventuring is about concocting meaningful events and experiments that challenge me, that redefine my childhood sense of the hero’s journey, that force me to look intimately in everyday places, and question how I live among others.”
― Beau Miles, The Backyard Adventurer

“And when all the lights have gone out, such as is the case in the modern era, we must look at the brilliance which shines in far off places, and journey to it. We must bring the Grail back to The People. It is up to us to undertake a most perilous journey. Success isn’t guaranteed. But we go forth regardless. Do you have the courage to join us?”
― David Sinclair, Without the Mob, There Is No Circus

“The man who loves the rising sun must equally adore the darkest night. How else will the sun rise if not through the darkness? Who would enjoy the calm if they could not also embrace the storm? All greatness is born in the harshest conditions. It’s struggle, not having everything handed to you on a plate, which makes you great. If you’re afraid of struggle, you’re afraid of greatness. The Superman wants to march through hell. The Last Man wants to see only heaven. That’s why the Last Man does nothing of note, while everything done by the Superman is noteworthy. Are the masses taking a note of your life, or is there nothing to note? Most people vanish from their own lives. At the end, they realized they never lived at all. Most people impersonate being alive. It’s not a good impression. They don’t even convince themselves. But you always know when you have encountered one of the congregation of the Chapel of the Serpent. They always leave their mark … their bite.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“And they made dim the lights in the Great Causeway, that there should no glare go forth into the Land, when the Gate was opened; and behold, they opened not the lesser gate within the greater, for me; but did honour my journey, in that they swung wide the Great Gate itself, through which a monstrous army might pass. And there was an utter silence all about the Gate; and in the hushed light the two thousand that made the Full Watch, held up each the Diskos, silently, to make salute; and humbly, I held up the Diskos reversed, and went forward into the Dark.”
― William Hope Hodgson

“Maslow emphasized the “heights”, but to get to the heights you must have the Dark Night of the soul, and make your trip to the Chapel Perilous. Katabasis means a going-down, a descent. It’s used to describe journeys to the underworld. Anabasis is its opposite, a going-up. You can only reach the spiritual heights if you have also known the spiritual depths.”
― Rob Armstrong, Homo Roboticus: The Inner Human Robot Revealed By Sleepwalking and Hypnosis

“Now, get your head right and get out of that bed Danny boy. There is a war going on between good and evil on this planet and you have been drafted to fight. You have work to do. It could be a bunch of tiny things or a few giant things. A big moment, or a bunch of small moments. It could happen tomorrow or 20 years from now. This is the beginning for you. Get up and get it started.”
― Truant D. Memphis, Post Oh!pocalypto Poppycock

“At the end of their journey, a hero may stand in the same place where their story started, but nevertheless they have been irrevocably shifted, altered, displaced.”
― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry

“Shanghaied is a sailing story but it’s about more than sailing. It will steal you away in the best way, take you to a new horizon and bring you back. And in your lifetime, when YOU feel “at sea,” I hope the story it tells will help you.”
― Jon Howe, Shanghaied

“Give me an adventure."

In the moment that followed, Cord realized that this sounded weird, and lost her nerve. She held up her hands. "I'm not talking about some massive adventure. Just something that would make getting fired seem small. Something that I might remember when I'm old."

Now for the first time I reviewed everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. It made me feel dizzy.

"Raz?" she said, after a while.

"I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be a massive adventure or nothing.”
― Neal Stephenson, Anathem