"The function of (heroic) symbols is to..." - Quote by Joseph Campbell
The function of (heroic) symbols is to give you a sense of Aha! Yes, I know what it is, it's myself.
More by Joseph Campbell
“Their task [creative artists], therefore, is to communicate directly from one inward world to another, in such a way that an actual shock of experience will have been rendered: not a mere statement for the information or persuasion of a brain, but an effective communication across the void of space and time from one center of consciousness to another.”
“I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.”
“Now I found it in writing sentences. You can write that sentence in a way that you would have written it last year. Or you can write it in the way of the exquisite nuance that is sriting in your mind now. But that takes a lot of ... waiting for the right word to come.”
More on Symbols
“Just as money is not real, consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures is like eating paper currency.”
“Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws.”
“There is a thinking in primordial images, in symbols which are older than the historical man, which are inborn in him from the earliest times, eternally living, outlasting all generations, still make up the groundwork of the human psyche. It is only possible to live the fullest life when we are in harmony with these symbols; wisdom is a return to them.”