George Gurdjieff

“Ponder just what it is that you are pondering.”

“Without self-knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.”

“The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness.”

“In order to do, it is necessary to be.”

“Knowledge is one thing, understanding is another.”

“You are in prison. If you wish to get out of prison, the first thing you must do is realize that you are in prison.”

“Conscious suffering is the means to the redemption of the soul.”

“If you have a soul, you are a soul; if you do not, you are a machine.”

“Without struggle, there is no progress.”

“Remember yourself always and everywhere.”

“Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small 'I's, very often entirely unknown to one another.”

“The first reason for people's slavery is our ignorance, and above all, our ignorance of ourselves.”

“Only he can be just who is able to put himself in the position of others.”

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

“The sleep of man is not normal sleep; it is hypnotic sleep.”

“If a man could understand all the horror of the lives of ordinary people... he would understand that there can be only one thing that is serious for him - to escape from the general law, to be free.”