Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction. Marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again. That's why it's a sacrament: you give up your personal simplicity to participate. And you are not giving to the other person; you are giving to the relationship. Because you are not giving to the other person, it is not impoverishing—it is life-building, life-fostering, enriching.

About Joseph Campbell

Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human condition. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with...

More quotations from Joseph Campbell

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.

—Joseph Campbell

Our schizophrenic patient is actually experiencing inadvertently that same beatific ocean deep which the yogi and saint are ever striving to enjoy: except that, whereas they are swimming in it, he is drowning.

—Joseph Campbell

Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.

—Joseph Campbell

The ultimate aim of the quest… must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but wisdom and power to serve others.

—Joseph Campbell

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

—Joseph Campbell

life acceptance planning

History

7 Jun 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction. Marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again. That's why it's a sacrament: you give up your personal simplicity to participate. And you are not giving to the other person; you are giving to the relationship. Because you are not giving to the other person, it is not impoverishing — it is life-building, life-fostering, enriching.