"The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do."
The Highest that a Man can Attain
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Gurdjieff
Everything That People Do is Connected With ‘Sex’
"Sex plays a tremendous role in maintaining the mechanicalness of life. Everything that people do is connected with 'sex': politics, religion, art, the theater, music, is all 'sex.' Do you think people go to the theater or to church to pray or to see some new play?...
Machines have to be Blind and Unconscious
"People are machines. Machines have to be blind and unconscious, they cannot be otherwise, and all their actions have to correspond to their nature. Everything happens. No one does anything. ‘Progress’ and ‘civilization,’ in the real meaning of these words, can appear...
Man is Asleep
"Man is asleep. Man does not have real consciousness or will at all. Man is not free. For man, everything just happens. However, man can become conscious and find man's real place, as a human being, in creation but this requires a profound inner transformation."
The Nature of Man
"Such is the nature of man, that for your first gift - he prostrates himself; for your second - kisses your hand; for the third - fawns for the fourth - just nods his head once; for the fifth - becomes too familiar; for the sixth - insults you and for the seventh -...
Eternal Suffering
"The Work consists in subjecting oneself voluntarily to temporary suffering in order to be free from eternal suffering. But people are afraid of suffering. They want pleasure now, at once, and for forever. They do not want to understand that pleasure is an attribute...
Decent Man
"A decent man will behave decently even if he thinks that he has been treated unjustly or wrongly. But many people in such circumstances show a side of their nature which otherwise they would never show. And at times it is a necessary means for exposing a man's...
Man in a state of Sleep
"There are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep him in the power of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of awakening, it is necessary to know the nature of the forces which keep man in a state of sleep. First of all...
What puts a Man to Sleep?
"Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way. And then sin is what stops a man, helps him to deceive himself and to think he is working when he is simply asleep. Sin is what puts a man to sleep when he has already decided to awaken. And what...
A Man is much too Lazy
"A man is much too lazy: he will do a great deal without the proper intensity, or he will do nothing at all while thinking that he is doing something; he will work with intensity on something that does not need intensity and will let these moments when intensity is...