G. I. Gurdjieff famous quotes

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#People #Trying #Different

It is only by grounding our awareness in the living sensation of our bodies that the 'I Am,' our real presence, can awaken.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Real #Body #Spirituality

In order to understand the interrelation of truth and falsehood in life, a man must understand falsehood in himself, the constant incessant lies he tells himself.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Lying #Men #Order

Patience is the mother of will.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Patience #Mother

As long as our ideas are the same, we will never be apart.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Ideas #Long

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Believe #Belief #Verify

Two things in life are infinite; the stupidity of man and the mercy of God.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Two #Stupidity

It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Change #Mistake #Men

Awakening begins when a man realizes that he is going nowhere and does not know where to go.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Doe #Awakening

If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Want #Priests

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Spiritual #Knowledge #Acceptance

There is a cosmic law which says that every satisfaction must be paid for with a dissatisfaction.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Law #Satisfaction #Pleasure

Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Faith #Emotional #Slavery

Love without knowledge is demonic.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Demonic

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Mean #Order #Littles

Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Mean #Men #Self

Wish' is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Powerful #Wish #World

The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Stories #Untold Stories #Evolution

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Animal #Meat #Climate

With thorns in the inner world there will always be roses in the outer world, in law-able compensation.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Law #Rose #World

One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Evil #Doe

Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Use

All who have come to me must have enema each day.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Each Day

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Struggle #Data #Two

Only super-efforts count.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Effort

Common aim is stronger than blood.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Blood #Stronger #Common

Now everything that you do is written in red or black in Angel Gabriel's book. Not for everyone is this record kept, but only for those who have taken a position of responsibility. There is a Law of Sins, and if you do not fulfil all your obligations, you will pay.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Karma #Book #Taken

Life is real only then, when "I am".
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Life #Real #Life Is

Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Death #Men #Different

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Views #Mind

Listen, you have now found the conditions in which the desire of your heart can become the reality of your being. Stay here, until you acquire a force in you that nothing can destroy. Then you'll need to go back into life, and there you will measure yourself constantly with forces which will show you your place.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Heart #Reality #Desire

In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Trust No One #Men #Groups

He who has gotten rid of the disease of "tomorrow" has a chance of achieving what he is here for.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Powerful #Disease #Chance

Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to 'learn.' What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying 'Know thyself.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Matter #Study

Man has no individual i. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small "i"s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking, "i". And each time his i is different. just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man's name is legion.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Thinking #Names

Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West-and then seek.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Understanding #East #West

From looking at your neighbor and realizing his true significance, and that he will die, pity and compassion will arise in you for him and finally you will love him.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Compassion #Realizing #Pity

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Mean #Mind #Wish

Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Grief #Blessed #Soul

One of man's important mistakes, one which must be remembered, is his illusion in regard to his I. Man such as we know him, the 'man-machine,' the man who cannot 'do,' and with whom and through whom everything 'happens,' cannot have a permanent and single I. His I changes as quickly as his thoughts, feelings and moods, and he makes a profound mistake in considering himself always one and the same person; in reality he is always a different person, not the one he was a moment ago.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Mistake #Reality #Men

Practice love first on animals, they are more sensitive.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Animal #Practice #Firsts

Those who have not sown anything during their responsible life will have nothing to reap in the future.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Giving #Responsible #Reap

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Struggle #Order #Long

The only type of sexual relations possible are those with someone who is as advanced and capable as oneself.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Type #Relation #Oneself

What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Impossible #Individual

Better to die than live in sleep.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Sleep

Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Struggle #Opportunity #Giving

Love of consciousness evokes the same in response Love of feeling evokes the opposite Love of body depends only on type and polarity.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Life #Opposites #Feelings

Hope of consciousness is strength Hope of feelings is slavery Hope of body is disease.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Hope #Feelings #Body

A miracle is not the breaking of physical laws, but rather represents laws which are incomprehensible to us.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Science #Law #Miracle

Every grown-up man consists wholly of habits, although he is often unaware of it and even denies having any habits at all.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Habit #Deny

A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Prayer #Numbers #People

Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Keys #Doors #Trying

The first reason for people's slavery is our ignorance, and above all, our ignorance of ourselves.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Ignorance #People #Slavery

If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years, but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt. It is a mathematical law and all life is mathematics.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Life #Helping Others #Years

If a sufficient number of people who wanted to stop war really did gather together, they would first of all begin by making war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would make war on people who also want to stop wars but in another way.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#War #Numbers #People

Would a CONSCIOUS human being destroy himself through war, and crime, and quarrels? No, a man simply knows not what he does to himself.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#God #War #Men

We must strive for freedom if we strive for self-knowledge. The task of self-knowledge and of further self-development is of such importance and seriousness, it demands such intensity of effort, that to attempt it any old way and amongst other things is impossible. The person who undertakes this task must put it first in his life, which is not so long that he can afford to squander it on trifles.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Self #Long #Effort

If you can serve a cup of tea right, you can do anything.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Tea #Cups Of Tea #Cups

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Giving Up #Sacrifice #Men

Personality in man is what is "not his own" . . . what come from outside, what he has learned, or reflects, all traces of exterior impressions left in the memory.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Memories #Men #Personality

My way is to develop the hidden potentialities of man; a way that is against Nature and against God.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Way #My Way

The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness, and 'consciousness' cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and 'will' cannot evolve involuntarily.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Insightful #Evolution Of Man

A man must first of all understand certain things. He has thousands of false ideas and false conceptions, chiefly about himself, and he must get rid of some of them before beginning to acquire anything new. Otherwise the new will be built on a wrong foundation and the result will be worse than before. To speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; one must study a great deal and for a long time in order to speak the truth. The wish alone is not enough. To speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself. And this nobody wants to know.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Lying #Men #Order

You can never awaken using the same system that put you to sleep in the first place.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Sleep #Growth #Firsts

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Leader #Trying #Slavery

The degree of consciousness corresponds to the degree of density or the speed of vibrations. The denser the matter, the less conscious it is.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Vibrations #Degrees #Density

Nothing can be attained without suffering but at the same time one must begin by sacrificing suffering.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Sacrifice #Suffering

A 'sin' is something which is not necessary.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Sin

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Moving #Past #Years

Let us take some event in the life of humanity. For instance, war. There is a war going on at the present moment. What does it signify? It signifies that several millions of sleeping people are trying to destroy several millions of other sleeping people. They would not do this, of course, if they were to wake up. Everything that takes place is owing to this sleep.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#War #Sleep #People

Remember yourself always and everywhere.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Remember

By teaching others you will learn yourself.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Teaching #Teaching Others

If a man could understand all the horror of the lives of ordinary people who are turning around in a circle of insignificant interests and insignificant aims, if he could understand what they are losing, he would understand that there can only be one thing that is serious for him - to escape from the general law, to be free. What can be serious for a man in prison who is condemned to death? Only one thing: How to save himself, how to escape: nothing else is serious.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Law #Circles

The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Able

The first fundamental law of the universe is the law of three forces, of three principles, or , as it is often called, the law of three. According to this law every action, every phenomenon in all worlds without exception, is the result of a simultaneous action of three forces- the positive, the negative, and the neutralizing.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Law #Principles #Negative

To know all, it is necessary to know very little; but to know that very little, one must first know pretty much.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Knowledge #Littles #Firsts

If you meditate and the Devil comes, make the Devil meditate.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#People #Devil #People Skills

Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he 'lives' his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Philosophy #Men #Thinking

Every ceremony or rite has a value if it is performed without alteration. A ceremony is a book in which a great deal is written. Anyone who understands can read it. One rite often contains more than a hundred books.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Book #Hundred #Ceremony

Laughter relieves us of superfluous energy, which, if it remained unused, might become negative, that is, poison. Laughter is the antidote.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Happiness #Laughter #Joy

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.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Men #Giving #Understanding

Practice love on animals first; they react better and more sensitively.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Animal #Practice #Firsts

Without struggle, no progress and no result. Every breaking of habit produces a change in the machine.
-- G. I. Gurdjieff

#Struggle #Progress #Machines