George Gurdjieff Quotes (134) Spiritual Sayings
About the Author: George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (January 13, 1866 – October 29, 1949) was an influential spiritual teacher of the early to mid-20th century who taught that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff developed a method for doing so, calling his discipline "The Work" (connoting "work on oneself") or "the Method". According to his principles and instructions. Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness is different from that of the fakir, monk or yogi, so his discipline is also called (originally) the "Fourth Way". At one point, he described his teaching as being "esoteric Christianity".
At different times in his life, Gurdjieff formed and closed various schools around the world to teach the work. He claimed that the teachings he brought to the West from his own experiences and early travels expressed the truth found in ancient religions and wisdom teachings relating to self-awareness in people's daily lives and humanity's place in the universe. The title of his third series of writings, Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', expresses the essence of his teachings. His complete series of books is entitled All and Everything. See website for more info - http://www.gurdjieff.org/
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"In speaking of evolution it is necessary to understand from the outset that no mechanical evolution is possible. The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness."
― George Gurdjieff
"When we speak of prayer or of the results of prayer we always imply only one kind of prayer — petition or we think that petition can be united with all other kinds of prayers.… Most prayers have nothing in common with petitions. I speak of ancient prayers; many of them are much older than Christianity. These prayers are, so to speak, recapitulations; by repeating them aloud or to himself a man endeavors to experience what is in them, their whole content, with his mind and his feeling."
― George Gurdjieff
"In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him."
― George Gurdjieff
"Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity."
― George Gurdjieff
"Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing."
― George Gurdjieff
"To know means to know all. Not to know all means not to know. In order to know all, it is only necessary to know a little. But, in order to know this little, it is first necessary to know pretty much."
― George Gurdjieff
"A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake."
― George Gurdjieff
"Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation, says'I'."
― George Gurdjieff
"He seldom remains the same even for half an hour."
― George Gurdjieff
"One of man’s important mistakes, one which must be remembered, is his illusion in regard to his I."
― George Gurdjieff
"You must understand that ordinary efforts do not count; only superefforts count."
― George Gurdjieff
"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."
― George Gurdjieff
"In right knowledge the study of man must proceed on parallel lines with the study of the world, and the study of the world must run parallel with the study of man."
― George Gurdjieff
"The worse the conditions of life, the more productive the work, always provided you remember the work."
― George Gurdjieff
"Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not."
― George Gurdjieff
"I will tell you one thing that will make you rich for life. There are two struggles: an Inner-world struggle and an Outer-world struggle...you must make an intentional contact between these two worlds; then you can crystallize data for the Third World, the World of the Soul."
― George Gurdjieff
"Knowledge and understanding are quite different. Only understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it."
― George Gurdjieff
"Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little."
― George Gurdjieff
"If knowledge outweighs being a man knows but has no power to do. It is useless knowledge. On the other hand if being outweighs knowledge a man has the power to do, but does not know, that is, he can do something but does not know what to do. The being he has acquired becomes aimless and efforts made to attain it prove to be useless."
― George Gurdjieff
"The power of changing oneself lies not in the mind, but in the body and the feelings. Unfortunately, however, our body and our feelings are so constituted that they don’t care a jot about anything so long as they are happy. They live for the moment and their memory is short. The mind alone lives for tomorrow. Each has its own merits. The merit of the mind is that it looks ahead. But it is only the other two that can "do."
― George Gurdjieff
"Wish is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God."
― George Gurdjieff
"Here we can only direct and create conditions, but not help."
― George Gurdjieff
"By teaching others you will learn yourself."
― George Gurdjieff
"If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest."
― George Gurdjieff
"From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who kn"ows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others.
― George Gurdjieff
"Rest comes not from the quantity but from the quality of sleep."
― George Gurdjieff
"Every ceremony or rite has a value if it is performed without alteration. A ceremony is a book in which a great deal is written. Anyone who understands can read it. One rite often contains more than a hundred books."
― George Gurdjieff
"It is difficult to climb the hill but very easy to slide down it."
― Gurjieff Gurdjieff
"You must know how to take when it is not givem, to steal if necessary, but not wait for somebody to come and give it to you."
― Gurjieff Gurdjieff
"Only help him who is not an idler."
― George Gurdjieff
"Remember yourself always and everywhere."
― George Gurdjieff
"As long as our ideas are the same, we will never be apart."
― George Gurdjieff
"Two things in life are infinite; the stupidity of man and the mercy of God."
― George Gurdjieff
"Don't judge a man by the tales of others."
― George Gurdjieff
"A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering."
― George Gurdjieff
"One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind."
― George Gurdjieff
"It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing."
― George Gurdjieff
"Every one of those unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant 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 cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence, and also that tendency to hate others which flows from it."
― George Gurdjieff
"Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim — to be able to be."
― George Gurdjieff
"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'."
― George Gurdjieff
"I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself."
― George Gurdjieff
"Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness."
― George Gurdjieff
"The greatest untold story is the evolution of God."
― George Gurdjieff
"Practice love on animals first; they react better and more sensitively."
― George Gurdjieff
"There is a cosmic law which says that every satisfaction must be paid for with a dissatisfaction."
― George Gurdjieff
"It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way."
― George Gurdjieff
"All religions speak about death during this life on earth. Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one’s own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken. We must realize that we are very complicated machines, and so this process of breaking is bound to be a long and difficult task. Before real growth becomes possible, our personality must die."
― George Gurdjieff
"Faith cannot be given to man. Faith arises in a man and increases in its action in him not as the result of automatic learning, that is, not from any automatic ascertainment of height, breadth, thickness, form and weight, or from the perception of anything by sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste, but from understanding. Understanding is the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and from all kinds of experiences personally experienced."
― George Gurdjieff
"Formerly, it may be said, my whole being was possessed by egoism. All my manifestations and experiencings flowed from my vanity. The meeting with Father Giovanni killed all this, and from then on there gradually arose in me that "something" which has brought the whole of me to the unshakable conviction that, apart from the vanities of life, there exists a "something else" which must be the aim and ideal of every more or less thinking man, and that it is only this something else which may make a man really happy and give him real values, instead of the illusory "goods" with which in ordinary life he is always and in everything full."
― George Gurdjieff
"With thorns in the inner world there will always be roses in the outer world, in law-able compensation."
― George Gurdjieff
"The being of two people can differ from one another more than the being of a mineral and of an animal. This is exactly what people do not understand. And they do not understand that knowledge depends on being. Not only do they not understand this latter but they definitely do not wish to understand it."
― George Gurdjieff
"Objective knowledge, the idea of unity included, belongs to objective consciousness. The forms which express this knowledge when perceived by subjective consciousness are inevitably distorted and, instead of truth, they create more and more delusions. With objective consciousness it is possible to see and feel the unity of everything. But for subjective consciousness the world is split up into millions of separate and unconnected phenomena. Attempts to connect these phenomena into some sort of system in a scientific or philosophical way lead to nothing because man cannot reconstruct the idea of the whole starting from separate facts and they cannot divine the principles of the division of the whole without knowing the laws upon which this division is based."
― George Gurdjieff
"A man can keep silence in such a way that no one will even notice it. The whole point is that we say a good deal too much. If we limited ourselves to what is actually necessary, this alone would be keeping the silence. And it is the same with everything else, with food, with pleasures, with sleep; with everything there is a limit to what is necessary. After this 'sin' begins. This is something that must be grasped, a 'sin' is something which is not necessary."
― George Gurdjieff
"RELIGION IS DOING; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he lives his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy. Whether he likes it or not he shows his attitude towards religion by his actions and he can show his attitude only by his actions. Therefore if his actions are opposed to those which are demanded by a given religion he cannot assert that he belongs to that religion."
― George Gurdjieff
"The advantage of the separate individual is that he is very small and that, in the economy of Nature, it makes no difference whether there is one mechanical man more or less. We can easily understand this correlation of magnitudes if we imagine the correlation between a microscopic cell and our own body. The presence or absence of one cell will change nothing in the life of the body. We cannot be conscious of it, and it can have no influence on the life and functions of the organism. In exactly the same way a separate individual is too small to influence the life of the cosmic organism to which he stands in the same relation (with regard to size) as a cell stands to our own organism. And this is precisely what makes his 'evolution' possible; on this are based his 'possibilities'."
― George Gurjieff
"There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him. For without this knowledge, he will have no focal point in his search. Socrates’ words, “Know thyself” remain for all those who seek true knowledge and being."
― George Gurdjieff
"LIBERATION LEADS TO LIBERATION. These are the first words of truth — not truth in quotation marks but truth in the real meaning of the word; truth which is not merely theoretical, not simply a word, but truth that can be realized in practice. The meaning behind these words may be explained as follows: By liberation is meant the liberation which is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times. This liberation can indeed be very great. All men desire it and strive after it. But it cannot be attained without the first liberation, a lesser liberation. The great liberation is liberation from influences outside us. The lesser liberation is liberation from influences within us."
― George Gurdjieff
"Man such as we know him, the "man-machine," the man who cannot "do," and with whom and through whom everything "happens," cannot have a permanent and single I. His I changes as quickly as his thoughts, feelings and moods, and he makes a profound mistake in considering himself always one and the same person; in reality he is always a different person, not the one he was a moment ago."
― George Gurdjieff
"Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small "I"s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking, 'I'. And each time his I is different. Just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man's name is legion."
― George Gurdjief
Try to understand what I am saying: everything is dependent on everything else, everything is connected, nothing is separate. Therefore everything is going in the only way it can go. If people were different everything would be different. They are what they are, so everything is as it is.
― George Gurdjieff
If a man could understand all the horror of the lives of ordinary people who are turning around in a circle of insignificant interests and insignificant aims, if he could understand what they are losing, he would understand that there can only be one thing that is serious for him - to escape from the general law, to be free. What can be serious for a man in prison who is condemned to death? Only one thing: How to save himself, how to escape: nothing else is serious.
― George Gurdjieff
A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.
― George Gurdjieff
Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.
― George Gurdjieff
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.
― George Gurdjieff
Awakening begins when a man realizes that he is going nowhere and does not know where to go.
― George Gurdjieff
It is only by grounding our awareness in the living sensation of our bodies that the 'I Am,' our real presence, can awaken.
― George Gurdjieff
Consciousness is a state in which a man knows all at once everything that he in general knows and in which he can see how little he does know and how many contradictions there are in what he knows.
― George Gurdjieff
It is very difficult also to sacrifice one's suffering. A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.
― George Gurdjieff
One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good.
― George Gurdjieff
The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness, and 'consciousness' cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and 'will' cannot evolve involuntarily.
― George Gurdjieff
Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it.
― George Gurdjieff
All who have come to me must have enema each day.
― George Gurdjieff
One of man's important mistakes, one which must be remembered, is his illusion in regard to his I. Man such as we know him, the 'man-machine,' the man who cannot 'do,' and with whom and through whom everything 'happens,' cannot have a permanent and single I. His I changes as quickly as his thoughts, feelings and moods, and he makes a profound mistake in considering himself always one and the same person; in reality he is always a different person, not the one he was a moment ago.
― George Gurdjieff
Personality in man is what is "not his own" . . . what come from outside, what he has learned, or reflects, all traces of exterior impressions left in the memory.
― George Gurdjieff
Listen, you have now found the conditions in which the desire of your heart can become the reality of your being. Stay here, until you acquire a force in you that nothing can destroy. Then you'll need to go back into life, and there you will measure yourself constantly with forces which will show you your place.
― George Gurdjieff
I will tell you one thing that will make you rich for life. There are two struggles: an Inner-world struggle and an Outer-world struggle...you must make an intentional contact between these two worlds; then you can crystallize data for the Third World, the World of the Soul.
― George Gurdjieff
Hope of consciousness is strength
Hope of feelings is slavery
Hope of body is disease.
― George Gurdjieff
In order to understand the interrelation of truth and falsehood in life, a man must understand falsehood in himself, the constant incessant lies he tells himself.
― George Gurdjieff
Never think of results, just do!
― George Gurdjieff
Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
― George Gurdjieff
I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.
― George Gurdjieff
Practice love first on animals, they are more sensitive.
― George Gurdjieff
Believe nothing, not even yourself.
― George Gurdjieff
You can never awaken using the same system that put you to sleep in the first place.
― George Gurdjieff
Life is real only then, when "I am".
― George Gurdjieff
Real love is a cosmic force which goes through us. If we crystallize it, it becomes the greatest power in the world.
― George Gurdjieff
Love of consciousness evokes the same in response
Love of feeling evokes the opposite
Love of body depends only on type and polarity.
― George Gurdjieff
The first thing, the very very first thing, "Find out what your greatest characteristic is, your greatest undoing, your central characteristic of unconsciousness." Each one's is different. Somebody is sex-obsessed. In a country like India, where for centuries sex has been repressed, that has become almost a universal characteristic; everybody is obsessed with sex. Somebody is obsessed with anger, and somebody else is obsessed with greed. You have to watch which is your basic obsession.
― George Gurdjieff
Practice love on animals first; they react better and more sensitively.
― George Gurdjieff
We must strive for freedom if we strive for self-knowledge. The task of self-knowledge and of further self-development is of such importance and seriousness, it demands such intensity of effort, that to attempt it any old way and amongst other things is impossible. The person who undertakes this task must put it first in his life, which is not so long that he can afford to squander it on trifles.
― George Gurdjieff
The first fundamental law of the universe is the law of three forces, of three principles, or , as it is often called, the law of three. According to this law every action, every phenomenon in all worlds without exception, is the result of a simultaneous action of three forces- the positive, the negative, and the neutralizing.
― George Gurdjieff
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.
― George Gurdjieff
Patience is the mother of will.
― George Gurdjieff
Time began when you were born. It will end when you die.
― George Gurdjieff
As long as our ideas are the same, we will never be apart.
― George Gurdjieff
There is a cosmic law which says that every satisfaction must be paid for with a dissatisfaction.
― George Gurdjieff
It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.
― George Gurdjieff
If you meditate and the Devil comes, make the Devil meditate.
― George Gurdjieff
Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he 'lives' his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy.
― George Gurdjieff
Knowledge by itself does not give understanding. Nor is understanding increased by an increase of knowledge alone. Understanding depends upon the relation of knowledge to being...It appears only when a man feels and senses what is connected with it.
― George Gurdjieff
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.
― George Gurdjieff
The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do.
― George Gurdjieff
From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others.
― George Gurdjieff
The only type of sexual relations possible are those with someone who is as advanced and capable as oneself.
― George Gurdjieff
One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.
― George Gurdjieff
Wish' is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God.
― George Gurdjieff
The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
― George Gurdjieff
Remember yourself always and everywhere.
― George Gurdjieff
Man has no individual i. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small "i"s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking, "i". And each time his i is different. just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man's name is legion.
― George Gurdjieff
Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.
― George Gurdjieff
If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.
― George Gurdjieff
Without struggle, no progress and no result. Every breaking of habit produces a change in the machine.
― George Gurdjieff
The first reason for people's slavery is our ignorance, and above all, our ignorance of ourselves.
― George Gurdjieff
Begin with the possible; begin with one step.
― George Gurdjieff
He who has gotten rid of the disease of "tomorrow" has a chance of achieving what he is here for.
― George Gurdjieff
Better to die than live in sleep.
― George Gurdjieff
There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him.
― George Gurdjieff
In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him.
― George Gurdjieff
If you can serve a cup of tea right, you can do anything.
― George Gurdjieff
Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing.
― George Gurdjieff
The degree of consciousness corresponds to the degree of density or the speed of vibrations. The denser the matter, the less conscious it is.
― George Gurdjieff
To know means to know all. Not to know all means not to know. In order to know all, it is only necessary to know a little. But, in order to know this little, it is first necessary to know pretty much.
― George Gurdjieff
Two things in life are infinite; the stupidity of man and the mercy of God.
― George Gurdjieff
If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years, but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt. It is a mathematical law and all life is mathematics.
― George Gurdjieff
What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses.
― George Gurdjieff
Nothing can be attained without suffering but at the same time one must begin by sacrificing suffering.
― George Gurdjieff
Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little.
― George Gurdjieff
If a sufficient number of people who wanted to stop war really did gather together, they would first of all begin by making war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would make war on people who also want to stop wars but in another way.
― George Gurdjieff
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.
― George Gurdjieff
Only super-efforts count.
― George Gurdjieff
To know all, it is necessary to know very little; but to know that very little, one must first know pretty much.
― George Gurdjieff
A 'sin' is something which is not necessary.
― George Gurdjieff
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