Joseph Campbell on Being a Job Slave

Posted by admin on Friday, November 8, 2013

Joseph Campbell Money Quotation saying when we spend our days doing things we don’t believe in and don’t care about, just to make a paycheck, we have enslaved ourselves. Joseph Campbell said:
 

 

“I think a person who takes a job in order to live, that is to say, just for the money, has turned himself into a slave” — Joseph Campbell

 

 

In this quote, Joseph Campbell is expressing the view that solely working for money can turn a person into a kind of slave. When someone “takes a job in order to live, that is to say, just for the money,” their main motivation is financial survival or gain rather than personal fulfillment or passion.

Campbell suggests that this kind of relationship to one’s work, where the job is a means to an end of earning income rather than something meaningful or enjoyable, can diminish one’s freedom and sense of autonomy.

The quote advocates pursuing a career that aligns with one’s interests and talents, so work enriches life rather than feeling like a necessary obligation driven only by financial need.