In Search of the Miraculous Quotes

“And yet they lie all the time, both when they wish to lie and when they wish to speak the truth. They lie all the time, both to themselves and to others.”
― Pyotr Uspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“Whatever work a man may be doing, it is enough for him to try to do each action deliberately, with his mind, following every movement, and he will see that the quality of his work will change immediately.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“you do not realize that one has to learn to speak the truth. it seems to you that it is enough to wish or to decide to do so. and i tell you that people comparatively rarely tell a deliberate lie. in most cases they think they speak the truth. and yet they lie all the time, both when they wish to lie and when they wish to speak the truth. they lie all the time, both to themselves and to others. therefore nobody ever understands either himself or anyone else. think - could there be such discord, such deep misunderstanding, and such hatred towards the views and opinions of others, if people were able to understand because they cannot help lying. to speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; and one must study a great deal and for a long time in order to be able to speak the truth. the wish alone is not enough. to speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself. and this nobody wants to know.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“In order to destroy the lies in oneself as well as lies told unconsciously to others, 'buffers' must be destroyed. But then a man cannot live without 'buffers'. 'Buffers' automatically control a man's actions, words, thoughts, and feelings. If 'buffers' were to be destroyed all control would disappear. A man cannot exist without control even though it is only automatic control. Only a man who possesses will, that is, conscious control, can live without 'buffers'. Consequently, if a man begins to destroy 'buffers' within himself he must at the same time develop a will.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“The Christian church, the Christian form of worship, was not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in a ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know. This Egypt was in the same place as the other but it existed much earlier. Only small bits of it survived in historical times, and these bits have been preserved in secret and so well that we do not even know where they have been preserved.

It will seem strange to many people when I say that this prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constitute true Christianity. Special schools existed in this prehistoric Egypt which were called 'schools of repetition.' In these schools a public repetition was given on definite days, and in some schools perhaps even every day, of the entire course in a condensed form of the sciences that could be learned at these schools. Sometimes this repetition lasted a week or a month. Thanks to these repetitions people who had passed through this course did not lose their connection with the school and retained in their memory all they had learned. Sometimes they came from very far away simply in order to listen to the repetition and went away feeling their connection with the school. There were special days of the year when the repetitions were particularly complete, when they were carried out with particular solemnity—and these days themselves possessed a symbolical meaning.

These 'schools of repetition' were taken as a model for Christian churches—the form of worship in Christian churches almost entirely represents the course of repetition of the science dealing with the universe and man. Individual prayers, hymns, responses, all had their own meaning in this repetition as well as holidays and all religious symbols, though their meaning has been forgotten long ago.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff , In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“All this and much else besides is merely a form of identification. Such considering is wholly based upon ‘requirements’. A man inwardly ‘requires’ that everyone should see what a remarkable man he is and that they should constantly give expression to their respect, esteem, and admiration for him, for his intellect, his beauty, his cleverness, his wit, his presence of mind, his originality, and all his other qualities. Requirements in their turn are based on a completely fantastic notion about themselves such as very often occurs with people of very modest appearance. Various writers, actors, musicians, artists, and politicians, for instance, are almost without exception sick people. And what are they suffering from? First of all from an extraordinary opinion of themselves, then from requirements, and then from considering, that is, being ready and prepared beforehand to take offence at lack of understanding and lack of appreciation.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“Nothing that a man did yesterday excuses him today. Quite the reverse, if a man did nothing yesterday, no demands are made upon him today; if he did anything yesterday, it means that he must do more today. This certainly does not mean that it is better to do nothing. Whoever does nothing receives nothing”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“We do not imagine that the "masses" may consist of automatons obeying external stimuli and may move, not under the influence of the will, consciousness, or inclination of individuals, but under the influence of external stimuli coming possibly from very far away.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous

“Prolonged instruction, prolonged training, is necessary to be able to turn the cheek. And if this training is mechanical - it is again worth nothing because in this case it means that a man will turn his cheek because he cannot do anything else.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“I already knew then as an undoubted fact that beyond the thin film of false reality there existed another reality from which, for some reason, something separated us. The "miraculous" was a penetration into this unknown reality.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“We regard the actions of an individual as originating in himself. We do not imagine that the "masses" may consist of automatons obeying external stimuli and may move, not under the influence of the will, consciousness, or inclination of individuals, but under the influence of external stimuli coming possibly from very far away.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous

“I saw clearly that something could be found there which had long since ceased to exist in Europe and I considered that the direction I had taken was the right one. But, at the same time, I”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous

“The crowd neither wants nor seeks knowledge, and the leaders of the crowd, in their own interests, try to strengthen its fear and dislike of everything new and unknown. The slavery in which mankind lives is based upon this fear. It is even difficult to imagine the horror of this slavery. We do not understand what people are losing. But in order to understand the cause of this slavery it is enough to see how people live, what constitutes the aim of their existence, the object of their desires, passions, and aspirations, of what they think, of what they talk, what they serve and what they worship.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“And I tell you that people comparatively rarely tell a deliberate lie. In most cases they think they speak the truth. And yet they lie all the time, both when they wish to lie and when they wish to speak the truth. They lie all the time, both to themselves and to others. Therefore nobody ever understands either himself or anyone else.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Complete with Diagrams

“The collecting of knowledge by some depends upon the rejection of knowledge by others.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“said to myself then that the war must be looked upon as one of those generally catastrophic conditions of life in the midst of which we have to live and work, and seek answers to our questions and doubts. The war, the great European war, in the possibility of which I had not wanted to believe and the reality of which I did not for a long time wish to acknowledge, had become a fact.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Complete with Diagrams

“At this moment I want you to understand one thing: it is impossible to become free from one influence without becoming subject to another. The whole thing, all work on oneself, consists in choosing the influence to which you wish to subject yourself, and actually falling under this influence. And for this it is necessary to know beforehand which influence is the more profitable.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching

“realtà tutto viene fatto nel solo modo in cui può essere fatto.”
― Pëtr Dem'janovič Uspenskij, Frammenti di un insegnamento sconosciuto

“it was imperative to make a distinction between the system and G.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Complete with Diagrams

“I was beginning to get very interested in my groups. I saw a possibility of continuing the work.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Complete with Diagrams

“«I due stati consueti, cioè gli stati di coscienza più bassi, sono in primo luogo il sonno, ovvero uno stato passivo in cui l’uomo trascorre un terzo e molto spesso anche metà della propria vita; e in secondo luogo lo stato in cui gli uomini passano l’altra parte della vita, in cui camminano per le strade, scrivono libri, parlano di nobili argomenti, prendono parte alla politica, si uccidono l’un l’altro, lo stato che considerano attivo e chiamano stato di “chiara coscienza” o di “coscienza vigile”. Le denominazioni di “chiara coscienza” o di “coscienza vigile” sembrano coniate per scherzo, specialmente quando si comprende che cosa dovrebbe essere in realtà la chiara coscienza e quale sia invece lo stato in cui l’uomo vive e agisce.”
― Pëtr Dem'janovič Uspenskij, Frammenti di un insegnamento sconosciuto