G. I. Gurdjieff Quotes

53 Sourced Quotes

A man can keep silence in such a ways 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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Without struggle, no progress and no result. Every breaking of habit produces a change in the machine.

G. I. 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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Any prayer may be heard by the Higher Powers and a corresponding answer obtained only if it is uttered thrice:

Firstly—for the welfare or the peace of the souls of one’s parents.
Secondly—for the welfare of one’s neighbor.
And only thirdly—for oneself personally.

G. I. 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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
A man can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it. This must be understood from the very beginning. One must learn from him who knows.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Here we can only direct and create conditions, but not help.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation, says "I".

G. I. Gurdjieff
If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.

G. I. Gurdjieff
I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.

G. I. 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."

G. I. Gurdjieff
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ARE QUITE DIFFERENT. Only understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Faith of consciousness is freedom
Faith of feeling is weakness
Faith of body is stupidity.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Hope of consciousness is strength
Hope of feelings is slavery
Hope of body is disease.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. 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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.

G. I. 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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
Real love is a cosmic force which goes through us. If we crystallize it, it becomes the greatest power in the world.

G. I. Gurdjieff
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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
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.

G. I. Gurdjieff
You must understand that ordinary efforts do not count; only superefforts count.

G. I. Gurdjieff