Quotes from Carlos Castaneda

Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge . . ..

A man is defeated only when he no longer tries, and abandons himself.

Self-pity is the real enemy and the source of man's misery. Without a degree of pity for himself, man could not afford to be as self-important as he is. However, once the force of self-importance is engaged, it develops its own momentum. And it is this seemingly independent nature of self-importance which gives it its fake sense of worth.

Upon learning to see a man becomes everything by becoming nothing. He

You must wait patiently, knowing that you're waiting, and knowing what you're waiting for. That is the warrior's way. And if it is a matter of fulfilling your promise then you must be aware that you are fulfilling it. Then a time will come when your waiting will be over and you will no longer have to honor your promise.

The journey by itself was sufficient; any hope of arriving at a permanent position was outside the boundaries of his knowledge.

the recapitulation, which consisted of a systematic scrutiny of one's life, segment by segment, an examination made not in the light of criticism or finding flaw, but in the light of an effort to understand one's life, and to change its course. Don Juan's claim was that once any practitioner has viewed his life in the detached manner that the recapitulation requires, there's no way to go back to the same life.

a man of knowledge has no honor, no dignity, no family, no name, no country, but only life to be lived, and under these circumstances his only tie to his fellow men is his controlled folly. Thus

We know that nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to stand the pressure of the unknowable.

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.

We either make ourselves miserable, or make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

he defined stalking as the art of using behavior in novel ways for specific purposes. He said that normal human behavior in the world of everyday life was routine. Any behavior that broke from routine caused an unusual effect on our total being. That unusual effect was what sorcerers sought, because it was cumulative.

Birds fly like birds and a man who has taken the devil's weed flies as such. - As birds do? - No, he flies as a man who has taken the weed.

In the life of a warrior there is only one thing, one issue alone which is really undecided: how far one can go on the path of knowledge and power. That is an issue which is open and no one can predict its outcome. I once told you that the freedom a warrior has is either to act impeccably or to act like a nincompoop. Impeccability is indeed the only act which is free and thus the true measure of a warrior's spirit.

Those fibers join a man to his surroundings;

Perhaps it's not possible to explain, he said. Certain things in your life matter to you because they're important; your acts are certainly important to you, but for me, not a single thin is important any longer neither my acts nor the acts of any of my fellow men. I go on living though. because I have my will. Because I have tempered my will throughout my life until it's neat and wholesome and now it doesn't matter to me that nothing matters. My will controls the folly of my life.

Everything is filled to the brim," he repeated, "and everything is equal. I'm not like your friend who just grew old. When I tell you that nothing matters I don't mean it the way he does. For him, his struggle was not worth his while, because he was defeated; for me there is no victory, or defeat, or emptiness. Everything is filled to the brim and everything is equal and my struggle was worth my while.

there was no need to injure the shrubs, since we had already injured the quail.

I really felt I had lost my body, don Juan. You did. You mean, I really didn't have a body? What do you think yourself? well, I don't know. All I can tell you is what I felt. That is all there is in reality - what you felt.

To meet an ally a man must be a spotless warrior or the ally may turn against him and destroy him.

For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length-and there I travel looking, looking breathlessly.

La lucha que cada uno libra contra su antiguo ser dura toda la vida.

The only difference between them is that a man who sees controls his folly, while his fellow men can't.

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