“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.” PeopleIfsKnowsWantTwoEffortConditionsOrdinaryGainsTwo Things Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“I felt that on a basis of a "search for the miraculous" it would be possible to unite together a very large number of people who were no longer able to swallow the customary forms of lying and living in lying.” PeopleWould BeAbleTogetherFormLyingFeltNumbersBasesMiraculousLarge Numbers Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“Most people can accept the truth only in the form of a lie.” PeopleFormLyingAcceptingAccepting The Truth Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“The strangest and most fantastic fact about negative emotions is that people actually worship them.” PeopleFactsSpiritualSpiritualityEmotionWorshipNegativeFantasticNegative Emotions Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“You can understand other people only as much as you understand yourself and only on the level of your own being. This means you can judge other people's knowledge but you cannot judge their being. You can see in them only as much as you have in yourself. But people always make the mistake of thinking they can judge other people's being. In reality, if they wish to meet and understand people of a higher development than themselves they must work with the aim of changing their being.” PeopleIfsThinkingMeanRealitySpiritualWishLevelsMistakeJudgingDevelopmentHigherAim Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“Our ancestors were very rich and eminent people, and they left us an enormous inheritance, which we have completely forgotten, especially since the time when we began to consider ourselves the descendants of a monkey.” PeopleLeftRichForgottenEnormousAncestorMonkeysInheritanceDescendants Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“I've found that the chief difficulty for most people was to realize that they had really heard new things: that is things that they had never heard before. They kept translating what they heard into their habitual language. They had ceased to hope and believe there might be anything new.” PeopleBelieveMightFoundLanguageRealizingHeardDifficultyChiefsNew ThingsTranslateHabitual Author:P.D. Ouspensky
“People live in sleep, do everything in sleep, and do not know they are asleep.” PeopleKnowsSleepAwakening Author:P.D. Ouspensky
