P. D. Ouspensky - Man Quotes

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The most precise and complete formulation of the law of higher logic I find in the writing of Plotinus, in his On Intelligible Beauty. I shall quote this passage in the succeeding chapter.
I have called this system of higher logic Tertium Organum because for us it is the third canon — third instrument — of thought after those of Aristotle and Bacon. The first was Organon, the second, Novum Organum. But the third existed earlier than the first.
Man, master of this instrument, of this key, may open the door of the world of causes without fear.

P. D. Ouspensky
When a man begins to know himself a little he will see in himself many things that are bound to horrify him. So long as a man is not horrified at himself he knows nothing about himself.

P. D. Ouspensky
If a man gives way to all his desires, or panders to them, there will be no inner struggle in him, no 'friction,' no fire. But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with the desires that hinder him, he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole.

P. D. Ouspensky
Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation says "I." And in each case it seems to be taken for granted that this I belongs to the Whole, to the whole man, and that a thought, a desire, or an aversion is expressed by this Whole.

P. D. Ouspensky
It is by overcoming obstacles that man develops those qualities he needs.

P. D. Ouspensky
A man can be given only what he can use; and he can use only that for which he has sacrificed something

P. D. Ouspensky
Man is confronted with two obvious facts: The existence of the world in which he lives; and the existence of psychic life in himself.

P. D. Ouspensky