Quotes from Carlos Castaneda

The world doesn't yield to us directly, the description of the world stands in between.

Are you angry at me, don Juan? I asked when he returned. He seemed surprised at my question. No! I'm never angry at anybody! No human being can do anything important enough for that. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important. I don't feel that way any longer.

permission." "I have to ask your permission," don Juan said, "because you're the only one who can allow the words pent up inside you to be tapped. I think I made the mistake of assuming you understand more than you do. Words are tremendously powerful and important and are the magical property of whoever has them.

The world is incomprehensible. We won't ever understand it; we won't ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.

A man who is defeated by power dies without really knowing how to handle it. Power is only a burden upon his fate. Such a man has no command over himself, and cannot tell when or how to use his power.

One of the Greatest Forces in the Lives of Warriors is Fear. It Spurs them to Learn.

Mo? po?iva na vrsti znanja koje ?ovek poseduje. Kakvog ima smisla znati ono što je beskorisno? To nas ne?e pripremiti za neizbežan susret sa nepoznatim.

Formal talks were, for them, summations that they made from time to time of everything that they had taught or said to their disciples. Informal talks were daily elucidations in which things were explained without reference to anything but the phenomenon itself under scrutiny.

in every explanation there is a hidden apology.

Therefore, anthropology, the study of man, should be the core of every other discipline. Someday, it will.

La ricerca della libertà è l'unica forza stimolante che conosca. Libertà di volare in quell'infinito là in alto; libertà di dissolversi; libertà di distaccarsi da tutto; di essere come la fiamma di una candela che, nonostante il paragone con la luce di miliardi di stelle, rimane intatta perché non ha mai finto di essere più di quanto non fosse: solo una candela. Don Juan

By looking at you he meant he welcomes you. He showed you that you need a spirit catcher and a pouch, but not from this area; his bag was from another part of the country. You have three stumbling blocks in your way that make you stop; those were the boulders. And you definitely are going to get your best powers in water canyons and gullies; the ally pointed out the gully to you. The rest of the scene was meant to help you locate the exact place to find him.

Each man is different. Each man must follow his own path. Each man is the same. Each man must follow his own path.

Que cada uno de tus actos sea tu última batalla sobre la tierra

What is the sense of knowing things that are useless?

Who was I, anyway, to set myself up in judgment of anyone else?

He remarked that each of us was barred from silent knowledge by natural barriers, specific to each individual; and that the most impregnable of my barriers was the drive to disguise my complacency as independence.

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

Ljutiš li se na mene, don Huane?, upitah ga kada se vratio. Izgledao je iznena?en mojim pitanjem. Ne! Nikada se ni na koga ne ljutim. Niko na ovom svetu ne može da u?ini ništa toliko zna?ajno da bih se ja naljutio. Ljutiš se na ljude onda kada misliš da su njihovi postupci važni. Ja tako više ne mislim.

I asked him if there was a way in which he could accept just my desire to learn, as if I were an Indian.

The memorable events of a shaman's album are affairs that will stand the test of time because they have nothing to do with him, and yet he is in the thick of them. He'll always be in the thick of them, for the duration of his life, and perhaps beyond, but not quite personally.

He explained that the leaf had fallen over and over from that same tree so I would stop trying to understand.

Bez obzira na to jesmo li ratnici, svi se mi s vremena na vrijeme suo?avamo s kubnim centimetrom mogu?nosti. Razlika izme?u prosje?nog ?ovjeka i ratnika jest u tome što je ratnik toga svjestan, ostaje svjestan i budno ?eka kako bi taj kubni centimetar uhvatio ?im se pojavi.

I asked him if each of the two spots had a special name. He said that the good one was called the sitio and the bad one the enemy; he said these two places were the key to a man's wellbeing, especially for a man who was pursuing knowledge. The sheer act of sitting on one's spot created superior strength; on the other hand, the enemy weakened a man and could even cause his death. He said I had replenished my energy, which I had spent lavishly the night before, by taking a nap on my spot.