G. I. Gurdjieff Quotes
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The crowd neither wants nor seeks knowledge, and the leaders of the crowd, in their own interests, try to strengthen its fear and dislike of everything new and unknown. The slavery in which mankind lives is based upon this fear.
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Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it.
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Consciousness is a state in which a man knows all at once everything that he in general knows and in which he can see how little he does know and how many contradictions there are in what he knows.
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With thorns in the inner world there will always be roses in the outer world, in law-able compensation.
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Two things in life are infinite; the stupidity of man and the mercy of God.
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Humanity is moving in a circle. The progress in mechanical things of the past hundred years has proceeded at the cost of losing many other things which perhaps were much more important for it.
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Love of consciousness evokes the same in response
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Try to understand what I am saying: everything is dependent on everything else, everything is connected, nothing is separate. Therefore everything is going in the only way it can go. If people were different everything would be different. They are what they are, so everything is as it is.
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To know means to know all. Not to know all means not to know. In order to know all, it is only necessary to know a little. But, in order to know this little, it is first necessary to know pretty much.
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It is very difficult also to sacrifice one's suffering. A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.
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I will tell you one thing that will make you rich for life. There are two struggles: an Inner-world struggle and an Outer-world struggle...you must make an intentional contact between these two worlds; then you can crystallize data for the Third World, the World of the Soul.
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One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.
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The only type of sexual relations possible are those with someone who is as advanced and capable as oneself.
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Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not.
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The man has the possibilities of getting free gradually from the mechanical laws.
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The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
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Knowledge by itself does not give understanding. Nor is understanding increased by an increase of knowledge alone. Understanding depends upon the relation of knowledge to being...It appears only when a man feels and senses what is connected with it.
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Meat is necessary when there is hard physical work to be done, or in a very cold climate, or when edible plants cannot be found...Animal flesh provides all the substances we need, both for the intensive working of our organism and for maintaining a normal temperature in cold climates.
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One of the strongest motives for wishing to work on yourself is the realization that you may die at any moment - only you must first realize this.
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Remember yourself always and everywhere.
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Every grown-up man consists wholly of habits, although he is often unaware of it and even denies having any habits at all.
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From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others.
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Practice love on animals first; they react better and more sensitively.
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Believe nothing, not even yourself.