Time to Live
When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one that has been opened for us.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.
Science is but an image of the truth.
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.
The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.
The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.
The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
Mingle not in projects with men whose ways are not yours.
When love is at stake, yield not to an army.
The whole end of speech is to be understood.
It is humans that make truth great, not truth that makes humans great.
Your goody-goody people are the thieves of virtue.
Having heard the True Way in the morning, what matters it if one should come to die that night?
The nobler sort of man is proficient in the knowledge of his duty; the inferior man is proficient only in money-making.
Few are those who err on the side of self-restraint.
He who requires much from himself and little from others will be secure from hatred.
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Study without thought is vain; thought without study is perilous.
If language is lucid, that is enough.
The wise man will be slow to speak but quick to act.
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
Love truth, but pardon error.
I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.
Better is the enemy of good.
Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
You have no control over the hand that life deals you, but how you play that hand is entirely up to you.
Give me the patience for the small things of life, courage for the great trials of life. Help me to do my best each day and then go to sleep knowing God is awake.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid—one must also be polite.
Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.
The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.
The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.
Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice.
Dare to think for yourself.
Wherever my travels may lead, paradise is where I am.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
Mr. Gurdjieff was an extraordinary man, a master in the truest sense. His teachings speak to our most essential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life, and of human life in particular? As a young man, Gurdjieff relentlessly pursued these questions and became convinced that practical answers lay within ancient traditions. Through many years of searching and practice he discovered answers and then set about putting what he had learned into a form understandable to the Western world. Gurdjieff maintained that, owing to the abnormal conditions of modern life, we no longer function in a harmonious way. He taught that in order to become harmonious, we must develop new faculties — or actualize latent potentialities — through “work on oneself.” He presented his teachings and ideas in three forms: writings, music, and movements which correspond to our intellect, emotions, and physical body.
If they are far down, it is because you are high up.
A ”sin” is something which is not necessary.
The most difficult thing to endure is the manifestations of others.
Laughter relieves us of superfluous energy, which, if it remained unused, might become negative, that is, poison. Laughter is the antidote.
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.
Ashes come from burning.
Every stick has two ends.
A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.
No salt, no sugar.
Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
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.
Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.
We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools;
Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it, to another not having it;
Wisdom is of the Soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities, and is content…
Truth – She has confused all the learned of Islam, Everyone who has studied the psalms, Every Jewish Rabbi, Every Christian Priest.
I fear you will not reach Mecca, oh Nomad! For the road you are following leads to Turkestan.
Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.
I have never seen a man lost who was on a straight path.
No one throws stones at a barren tree.
When Noah is captain, what is there to fear?