Quotes from Carlos Castaneda

Men have to be hooked. Women don't need that. Women go freely into anything. That's their power and at the same time their drawback. Men have to be led and women have to be contained

Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated.

We are men and our lot in life is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.

My benefactor used to say the seeds are the 'sober head' -- the only part that could fortify the heart of man.

We have to balance the lineality of the known universe with the nonlineality of the unknown universe.

Never take a path that has no heart in it. You can't lose if your heart is in your work, but you can't win if your heart is not in it.

A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is turned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions.

Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.

Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use.

We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.

Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid.

Will is what can make you succeed when your thoughts tell you that you're defeated.

A warrior takes responsibility for his acts, for the most trivial of acts. An average man acts out his thoughts, and never takes responsibility for what he does.

Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellowmen. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.

To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.

It doesn't matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.

When you need an answer, look over your left shoulder and ask your death.

A warrior thinks of death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.

To die with elation is a crappy way of dying... A warrior dies the hard way. His death must struggle to take him. A warrior does not give himself to it.

Tonight in your dreams you must look at your hands.

A warrior never worries about his fear.

I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.