Quotes from G.I. Gurdjieff

And indeed, the mind of contemporary man, of whatever level of intellectuality, is only able to take cognizance of the world by means of data which, whenever accidentally or intentionally activated, arouse in him all sorts of fantastic impulses.

Men have their minds and women their feelings more highly developed. Either alone can give nothing. Think what you feel and feel what you think. Fusion of the two produces another force.

What you took as yourself begins to look like a little prison-house far away in the valley beneath you.

The Work is about making personality passive, a servant rather than a master.

Do everything quickly and well.

Until you stop being governed by your emotions you cannot be impartial.

Essence is the truth in man; personality is the false.

The man who has the disease of tomorrow is the most unfortunate man in the world.

Real art is knowledge not talent.

The well-being of a man is that everyone be his slave.

Truth is that from which conscience can be at peace.

To love work for work's sake and not for its gain.

Every one of those unfortunates [human beings] during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognisant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a cognisance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallised in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence, and also that tendency to hate others which flows from it.

Every - real - happiness - for - man - can - arise - exclusively - only - from - some - unhappiness - also - real - which - he - has - already - experienced.

On this piano the vibrations of each 'whole tone' and of each 'half tone' of any octave pass from one to another strictly according to the law of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh and thus their vibrations, as occurs always and everywhere in the Universe, mutually help one another to evolve or involve.

I have already told you that certain fragments of this knowledge happened to remain intact and passed from generation to generation through a very limited number of initiated beings there.

Se io è presente in me non contano più né Dio né diavolo.

On Sunday, namely the day dedicated to music and song, the learned beings belonging to this group produced every kind of 'melody' on various 'sound-producing instruments,' as well as with their voices, and then explained to all the other learned beings how the knowledge they wished to transmit was indicated in these works of theirs.

And so I went with her to the Tambov province. She stayed with the prince's sister, who became very fond of her and took her abroad where they lived for long periods, particularly in Italy. Little by little, under the influence of the prince's sister and the prince himself, she grew interested in their ideas, which soon became an integral part of her essence. She began to work on herself in earnest, and anyone who met her, even if only once, could feel the result of that work.

The highest aim and the meaning even of human life is to strive to do your best for the wellbeing of your neighbour, which is only possible by renouncing your own self-interest.

I repeat, if the strings of this piano are tuned correctly, and the required vibrations are evoked in the corresponding strings, the resulting blending of vibrations coincides almost exactly, even mathematically, with the law-conformable totality of vibrations of the substances issuing from corresponding cosmic sources, according to the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh.

In this connection, it is interesting to remark that I, as well as many others, noticed that when he himself used these sayings in conversation, it always seemed to every hearer that they could not have been more apt or better put, but that if anyone else made use of them, they seemed to be entirely beside the point or improbably nonsense.

If you meditate and the Devil comes, make the Devil meditate.

All this teaching given in fragments must be pieced together, and observations and actions must be connected to it. If there is no paste, nothing will stick.