Heroes Journey Quotes

“I don’t like perfect heroes; I can’t recognize myself in them. I like flawed heroes, like me. I want to see how they struggle with their flaws and in spite of that manage to slay the dragon.”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Book of Wisdom

“When the feminine and our vitality become lost to power drives and life becomes a wasteland, the stage is set for the mythic world to give rise to a hero to transform and revitalize the situation. They mythic hero is a metaphor for our struggle to transform our consciousness and bring new life to ourselves.”
― Massimilla Harris, Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality

“You are born to build the society, not to follow it.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“The world needs heroes. Be a hero and build your part of the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“You don't die when your body stops functioning. You die when your name is uttered for the last time in the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“Never mind the mistakes. One day they will become your most prized possessions.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“Throw away the newspapers. Discard all the useless debates and gossiping. Start working in silence. Start working on your passion. And make the news yourself.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“Stop grovelling and start working.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“People who have suffered understand pain and are often the best at helping others.”
― Nadia Fezzani, Real Life Super Heroes

“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

“Have patience and keep working. Everything will come alright in time.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Our sons are on a Hero’s Journey. They are navigating a transformative passage from boyhood to manhood, which requires them to leave behind the well-known world of childhood and cross a threshold, filled with many challenges, into a new world where much is unknown. Along their journey, our boys need an abundance of real-life, positive role models – everyday heroes and heroines – to look to for guidance and inspiration. They also must begin to see themselves as heroes – the authors of their own lives, armed with the noble qualities and courage needed to complete their journey and arrive at manhood with integrity.”
― Melia Keeton Digby, The Hero's Heart: A Coming of Age Circle for Boys

“The monk wakes from a dream into a world of mists and thunderclouds. The clouds play children's games with him. They show him dissolving images of yaks and sheep, serpents and hawks, angels and dragons. He closes his eyes and the clouds count to ten. He opens his eyes and they look for him.”
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

“There is something about tracing the steps of heroes that makes them become real and provides inspiration.”
― Richie Norton

“I often refer to the great mythologist and American author Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) in this book. He used the designation of „hero“ to describe individuals who embark on the monumental psychological task of expanding and evolving consciousness and famously charted this journey. This hero‘s journey begins in our inherent state of blindness, separation, and suffering and progresses on a circular (as opposed to linear) route made up of stages shared by myths and legends spanning all cultures and epochs. From Buddha to Christ, Arjuna to Alice in Wonderland, the hero‘s journey is one of passing through a set of trials and phases: seeking adventure, encountering mentors, slaying demons, finding treasure, and returning home to heal others.

Tibetan Buddhism‘s and Campbell‘s descriptions of the hero both offer a travel-tested road map of a meaningful life, a path of becoming fully human – we don‘t have to wander blindly, like college kids misguidedly hazed by a fraternity, or spiritual seekers abused in the thrall of a cult leader. The hero archetype is relevant to each of us, irrespective of our background, gender, temperament, or challenges, because we each have a hero gene within us capable of following the path, facing trials, and awakening for the benefit of others. Becoming a hero is what the Lam Rim describes as taking full advantage of our precious human embodiment. It‘s what Campbell saw as answering the call to adventure and following our bliss – not the hedonic bliss of chasing a high or acquiring more stuff, but the bliss of the individual soul, which, like a mountain stream, reaches and merges with the ocean of universal reality. (p. 15)”
― Miles Neale, Gradual Awakening: The Tibetan Buddhist Path of Becoming Fully Human

“I can see that you're mourning the loss of many things, but I want to help you. I want to help you discover your potential. Don't you want that? Do you really want to sit in this room, crying about what you could have been or done?”
― Jennifer West, The Legend of Acacia Vitak

“At the same time you're also aware that upon attempting to re-enter normal life from "mom land" or "middle aged" land, or both - you'll be seen as a "weirdo" or "cranky" or "stubborn," or all of the above. Doesn't it make sense you'd think about just not going back? The end of the heroes journey is like the path of a rocket re-entering Earth's atmosphere. It must burn. Pieces blister and break off. You're not the same splashing down into the ocean as when you left. When you took off your boosters were ablaze, fueling the epic push of new life out of yourself and into Earth's orbit. Everyone at Mission Control stood and applauded. But the return is more like free-fall. The rocket that lands in the ocean doesn't look like the one that departed. It's a little pod-like thing, a charred husk of what took off. Instead of wings spreading, a parachute awkwardly collapses into the water. A butterfly in reverse. What's left is this metal shell, just a nub of what was there before. And yet, it's a nub that's been to space for f---'s sake. Just surviving is the success. So much of who I was - my daily habits, my identifying clothing - had to get thrown away in making room to become a mother. What's left of me is now sharing space with a little boy. And as a result, my mental capacity has been reduced from a decent three bed two bath apartment to at best a little tenement studio. While the tight space creates some cons, the pro is that what can come in and what cannot is pretty clear.”
― Jessi Klein, I'll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood