Two things can get people to make efforts: if people want to get something, or if they want to get rid of something. Only, in ordinary conditions, without knowledge, people do not know what they can get rid of or what they can gain. P.D. Ouspensky More Quotes by P.D. Ouspensky More Quotes From P.D. Ouspensky Seek the Path, do not seek attainment, Seek for the Path within yourself. Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself, not without yourself. P.D. Ouspensky pathbooklooks In existing criminology there are concepts: a criminal man, a criminal profession, a criminal society, a criminal sect, and a criminal tribe, but there is no concept of a criminal state, or a criminal government, or criminal legislation. Consequently what is often regarded as "political" activity is in fact a criminal activity. P.D. Ouspensky tribescriminalsmen It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning. P.D. Ouspensky realizingspirituallife Love is the eternally burning fire in which humanity & all the world are being purified. P.D. Ouspensky humanityfirelove When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake. P.D. Ouspensky spiritualsleepreality I had come to the conclusion a long time ago that there was no escape from the labyrinth of contradictions in which we live except by an entirely new road, unlike anything hitherto known or used by us. But where this new or forgotten road began I was unable to say. 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 labyrinthlongreality Divide in yourself the mechanical from the conscious, see how little there is of the conscious, how seldom it works, and how strong is the mechanical - mechanical attitudes, mechanical intentions, mechanical thoughts, mechanical desires. P.D. Ouspensky strongspiritualattitude The greatest barrier to consciousness is the belief that one is already conscious. P.D. Ouspensky coachingconsciousnessbelief 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 knowingmenlong Man is a machine, but a very peculiar machine. He is a machine which, in right circumstances, and with right treatment, can know that he is a machine, and having fully realized this, he may find the ways to cease to be a machine. First of all, what man must know is that he is not one; he is many. He has not one permanent and unchangeable “I” or Ego. He is always different. One moment he is one, another moment he is another, the third moment he is a third, and so on, almost without end. P.D. Ouspensky egomaymen People live in sleep, do everything in sleep, and do not know they are asleep. P.D. Ouspensky awakeningsleeppeople Think about death. You do not know how much time remains to you. And remember that if you do not become different, everything will be repeated again, all foolish blunders, all silly mistakes, all loss of time and opportunity - everything will be repeated with the exception of the chance you had this time, because chance never comes in the same form.You will have to look for your chance next time. And in order to do this, you will have to remember many things, and how will you remember then if you do not remember anything now? P.D. Ouspensky mistakelosssilly The strangest and most fantastic fact about negative emotions is that people actually worship them. P.D. Ouspensky spiritualpeoplenegative Most people can accept the truth only in the form of a lie. P.D. Ouspensky acceptinglyingpeople Besides, all evil is relative. Something that is evil at one level of evolution can be good at an earlier stage because it provides the essential stimulus for development. But you want to judge everything by your own standards. You have reached a comparatively high level and so you see what you fight against as evil. Just think of the others, those who are at an earlier stage of development. Do not bar them from the path toward progress and evolution. P.D. Ouspensky fightingevilthinking It is by overcoming obstacles that man develops those qualities he needs. P.D. Ouspensky qualityovercomingmen Desire is when you do what you want, will is when you can do what you do not want. P.D. Ouspensky what-you-wantwantdesire Man is a machine which reacts blindly to external forces and, this being so, he has no will, and very little control of himself, if any at all. What we have to study, therefore, is not psychology-for that applies only to a developed man-but mechanics. Man is not only a machine but a machine which works very much below the standard it would be capable of maintaining if it were working properly. P.D. Ouspensky psychologywould-bemen Attaining consciousness is connected with the gradual liberation from mechanicalness, for man is fully and completely under mechanical laws. P.D. Ouspensky consciousnesslawmen There is no tyranny more ferocious than the tyranny of morality. Everything is sacrificed to it. P.D. Ouspensky moralitytyranny
