# Quote — Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

> People ask me, "Do you have optimism about the world, about how terrible it is?" And I say, "Yes, it's great the way it is" … I had the wonderful privilege of sitting face to face with [a Hindu guru] and the first thing he said to me was "Do you have a question?", cause the teacher always answers questions... I said, "Yes, I have a question." I said, " Since in Hindu thinking all the universe is divine, a manifestation of divinity itself, how can we say no to anything in the world? How can we say no to brutality to stupidity to vulgarity to thoughtlessness?" And he said, "For you and me, you must say yes." Well, I learned from my friends who were students of his that that happened to be the first question he asked his guru, and we had a wonderful conversation for an hour there.

- Author: [Joseph Campbell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell.md)
- Book: [The Power of Myth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell#The_Power_of_Myth_(1988)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth/people-ask-me-do-you

## More from this book

> This is the threat to our lives. We all face it. We all operate in our society in relation to a system. Now is the system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity or are you going to be able to use the system to human purposes? … If the person doesn't listen to the demands of his own spiritual and heart life and insists on a certain program, you're going to have a schizophrenic crack-up. The person has put himself off center. He has aligned himself with a programmatic life and it's not the one the body's interested in at all. And the world's full of people who have stopped listening to themselves.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth/this-is-the.md)

> This thing up here, this consciousness, thinks it's running the shop. It's a secondary organ. It's a secondary organ of a total human being, and it must not put itself in control. It must submit and serve the humanity of the body.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth/this-thing-up-here.md)

> One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth/one-thing-that.md)