A Quote by Joseph Campbell

Heinrich Zimmerhe had a little saying : The best things cant be told - because they are transcendent, inexpressible truths. The second best are misunderstood : myths, which are metaphoric attempts to point to the way toward the first. And the third best have to do with history, science, biography, and so on. The only kind of talking that can be understood is this last kind.

Joseph Campbell

Quote Topics

Attempts Because Best Best Things Biography Cant First Had History Inexpressible Kind Last Little Metaphoric Misunderstood Myths Only Point Saying Science Second Second Best Talking Things Third Toward Transcendent Truths Understood Way Which

Quote Author

Joseph Campbell
American - Author
March 26, 1904 - October 31, 1987

My friend Heinrich Zimmer of years ago used to say, 'The best things can't be told,' because they transcend thought. 'The second best are misunderstood,' because those are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which can't be thought about, and one gets stuck in the thoughts. 'The third best are what we talk about.'

Heinrich Zimmer

The best things cannot be told because they transcend thought. The second best are misunderstood because they are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which cannot be thought about. The third best are what we talk about.

Joseph Campbell

The best things cannot be told, the second best are misunderstood. After that comes civilized conversation; after that, mass indoctrination; after that, intercultural exchange.

Joseph Campbell

Somebody once told me, ‘Manage the top line, and the bottom line will follow.’ What's the top line? It's things like, why are we doing this in the first place? What's our strategy? What are customers saying? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? Those are the kind of questions you have to focus on.

Steve Jobs

I like the idea of building the suspense and taking it all the way up to the very last second with the suspense, and right when you think you can't take it anymore, then you come in with the joke and kind of break the tension. To me, that's the best kind of film. I like thrillers, so thrillers with comedy, to me, is always the best.

Corey Feldman

Every man's powers have relation to some kind of work; and whenever he finds that kind of work which he can do best--that to which his powers are best adapted--he finds that which will give him the best development, and that by which he can best build up, or make, his manhood.

J. G. Holland

Basic training was hard, but I made it - because I wanted to be the best me. Sometimes you have to learn that being the best you is being the second best you. I learned the hard way that the army doesn't want people who always come first. Otherwise, there would be only one person in the army.

Ant Middleton

The difference between the first and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition -- it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind -- yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!

William James

Sin in the Second City is a masterful history lesson, a harrowing biography, and - best of all - a superfun read. The Everleigh story closely follows the turns of American history like a little sister. I can't recommend this book loudly enough.

Darin Strauss

In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.

John Romero

Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.

Henry James

The best kind of friend is the kind you sit with, never say a word and walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you ever had.

Steven Wright

From the first place of liquid darkness, within the second place of air and light, I set down the following record with its mixture of fact and truths and memories of truths and its direction toward the Third Place, where the starting point is myth.

Janet Frame

It is an entirely selfish decision to turn producer because I want my kind of cinema to last and flourish, and helping young filmmakers make those kind of films is the best way to do it.