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

“You saved me,'" said Seneca softly. "You took a direct hit, and you
survived because of your gift."

Jake was slightly startled when she spoke. Seneca’s voice had changed. It was airy and light. Her spunky, deep voice was gone, as were her golden-blonde locks. Her hair was completely white, with silver streaks highlighting it throughout. He had noticed the beginnings of the change before they teleported. The transformation was now complete. Her eyes were a brilliant, majestic blue with flecks of silver that caught the light. She had approached quietly, and her presence made them all listen intently. Seneca was the Druid of the true prophecy. ”
― C. Toni Graham, Crossroads and the Dominion of Four

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

“It was mundane. Pedestrian. But there was something beautiful about that mud-encrusted snow. How many people had passed through on their commutes to work, splashing a bit of mud as their car moved forward? With each layer, the story that snowbank had to tell grew. It was a tale of a journey, with each hero heading in the same direction, if only for a moment in time.”
― Nikki Elizabeth, Peace on Earth & Mercy Mild

“The heroic quest typically highlights a seemingly average person (think Thomas Anderson before he becomes Neo) who embarks on a perilous undertaking, confronts challenges and temptations, and ultimately returns to his or her starting place, transformed and usually upgraded.

This myth appears central to human experience. The Tarot, for example, which reads as a distillation of ancient mythology, is in essence about the heroic quest to become one’s true self. Even the parable of the Prodigal Son can be interpreted as a retelling of the Hero’s Journey.

This journey isn’t merely external; it’s primarily internal. The Hero’s Journey, applied to our Matrix analogy, suggests that the only way out of the so-called simulation is into oneself.

The hero’s ultimate inner battle is against the enemy within, the shadow self, our own Agent Smith, the unrecognized and unintegrated aspects of the psyche that only battle and hinder us until we make peace with them.”
― Sol Luckman, Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality

“As we embark on this challenging yet transformational inner journey, we tap into the quantum self, the infinite potential that resides within. We come to realize that we’re not victims of circumstance, but conscious creators with the power to literally change the world ... or at least our world … by altering our worldview.

Our own reclaimed beliefs—which are more like deep knowings based on direct personal experience instead of mimetic desire—are some of the primary tools that we employ as increasingly conscious architects of our own experience.”
― Sol Luckman, Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality

“Every echo of the Astral War whispered a truth he wasn’t ready to hear.”
— from Echoes of the Astral War: Book One – Vatika”
― H . Nightshade

“Power isn’t always found—it’s awakened.”

— from Echoes of the Astral War: Book One – Vatika”
― H . Nightshade

“Embarking on this journey is an act of courage and curiosity. It is a decision to step into the role of the hero in your own story.”
― Kevin L. Michel, The Council of Gods