Quotes from G.I. Gurdjieff

Love without knowledge is demonic.

Only super-efforts count.

Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not.

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.

an honest being who does not behave absurdly has no chance at all of becoming famous, or even of being noticed, however kind and sensible he may be.

As long as our ideas are the same, we will never be apart.

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.

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

You must learn not what people round you consider good or bad, but to act in life as your conscience bids you. An untrammelled conscience will always know more than all the books and teachers put together.

Life is real only then, when "I am".

The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself.

Live a life of friction. Let yourself be disturbed as much as possible, but observe.

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.

Wish' is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God.

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.

Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place.

In my opinion, what will be troublesome for you in all this is chiefly that in childhood there was implanted in you—and has now become perfectly harmonized with your general psyche—an excellently working automatism for perceiving all kinds of new impressions, thanks to which "blessing" you have now, during your responsible life, no need to make any individual effort whatsoever.

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.

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

Consider everything belonging to another as if it were your own, and so treat it.

All who have come to me must have enema each day.

If you are working inwardly, Nature will help you. For the man who is working, Nature is sister of charity; she brings him what he needs for his work. If you need money for your work, even if you do nothing to get it, the money will come to you from all sides.

Everything existing in the world "falls to the bottom." The "bottom" for any part of the Universe is its nearest "stability," and this stability is the point toward which all the lines of force from all directions converge.

Never will he understand the sufferings of another, who has not experienced them himself, though he have divine Reason and the nature of a genuine devil!