P. D. Ouspensky
Russian esotericist, philosopher, and chief literary heir of G. I. Gurdjieff — the man whose 1949 In Search of the Miraculous became the canonical written record of Gurdjieff's oral teaching of the Fourth Way, and whose own books Tertium Organum (1912), A New Model of the Universe (1931), and The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution (1950) developed an independent line of esoteric philosophy alongside the Work. Born 1878 in Moscow, Ouspensky encountered Gurdjieff in 1915, worked closely with him until their split in 1924, then taught his own groups in London for the rest of his life. He died in 1947, two years before In Search of the Miraculous was published. Through that book — and through his pupils, who include Maurice Nicoll, Rodney Collin, and Lord Pentland — Ouspensky became one of the principal channels through which Fourth Way teaching reached the English-speaking world.
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quotes in library
Quotes by P. D. Ouspensky
115 quotes“Effort changes you. And only a changed you can understand.”
effortIn Search of the Miraculous
“This is why most reading is fruitless.”
readingIn Search of the Miraculous
“It produces information without producing change.”
informationIn Search of the Miraculous
“Schools exist for those who want change, not for those who want information.”
schoolThe Fourth Way
“If you want only information, you have many places to go.”
informationThe Fourth Way
“If you want change, you must accept the discipline of the Work.”
changeThe Fourth Way
“And the discipline begins with self-observation.”
disciplineThe Fourth Way
“Without self-observation, all other practices are empty.”
observationThe Fourth Way
“With self-observation, the path opens.”
observationThe Fourth Way
“Tertium Organum is a third logic — beyond Aristotle and Bacon.”
logicTertium Organum
“It is the logic of intuition, of higher consciousness.”
logicTertium Organum
“In ordinary logic, A cannot be both A and not-A.”
logicTertium Organum
“In the higher logic, A may be both A and not-A.”
logicTertium Organum
“This is not nonsense. It is the recognition of a higher dimension of reality.”
logicTertium Organum
“Mystics in every tradition have known this logic.”
mysticsTertium Organum
“It is the logic of the awakened.”
logicTertium Organum
“Sleep is real. We are asleep most of the time.”
sleepIn Search of the Miraculous
“To know that you are asleep is the first step toward awakening.”
sleepIn Search of the Miraculous
“Without that knowledge, you have no chance to awaken.”
knowledgeIn Search of the Miraculous
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