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Nothing in this world is a gift. Whatever must be learned must be learned the hard way.

Carlos Castaneda

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Carlos Castaneda
Age: 72 †
Born: 1925
Born: December 25
Died: 1998
Died: April 27
Anthropologist
Author
Novelist
Writer
Carlos Castaneda
World
Learned
Learning
Whatever
Reality
Nothing
Hard
Must
Way
Gift

More quotes by Carlos Castaneda

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Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete.
Carlos Castaneda
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... a warrior knows that he cannot change, and yet he makes it his business to try to change, even though he knows that he won't be able to. That's the only advantage a warrior has over the average man. The warrior is never disappointed when he fails to change.
Carlos Castaneda
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Things are only real after one has learned to agree on their realness. What took place this evening, for instance, cannot possibly be real to you, because no one could agree with you about it. 'Do you mean that you didn't see what happened?'. Of course I did. But I don't count. I am the one who's lying to you, remember?
Carlos Castaneda
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A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting... Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at him he is just like an ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under his control.
Carlos Castaneda
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... when confronted with unusual life situations... A warrior acts as if nothing had ever happened, because he doesn't believe in anything, yet he accepts everything at its face value.
Carlos Castaneda
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For an instant I think I saw. I saw the loneliness of man as a gigantic wave which had been frozen in front of me, held back by the invisible wall of a metaphor.
Carlos Castaneda
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The fact of the matter is that many children see. . . . Most of those who see are considered to be oddballs and every effort is made to correct them.
Carlos Castaneda
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When a warrior has put an end to his routines, when he doesn't care anymore whether he has company or is alone, because he has heard the silent whisper of the spirit then you can say that, truly, he has died. From that point on, even the simplest things in life become extraordinary for him.
Carlos Castaneda
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Only a warrior can survive the path of knowledge because the art of the warrior is to balance the pain of being a man with the wonder of being a man.
Carlos Castaneda
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And so you're afraid of the emptiness of your friend's life. But there's no emptiness in the life of a man of knowledge, I tell you. Everything is filled to the brim and everything is equal.
Carlos Castaneda
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When nothing is for sure, we remain alert, perennially on our toes. It is more exciting not to know which bush the rabbit is hiding behind than to behave as though we knew everything.
Carlos Castaneda
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Fright never injures anyone. What injures the spirit is having someone always on your back, beating you, telling you what to do and what not to do
Carlos Castaneda
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Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls, but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over walls they don't demolish them.
Carlos Castaneda
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...one should never turn to one's left when facing the nagual.
Carlos Castaneda
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The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.
Carlos Castaneda
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The secret is not in what you do to yourself but rather in what you don't do.
Carlos Castaneda
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If his spirit is distorted he should simply fix it-purge it, make it perfect-because there is no other task in our entire lives which is more worthwhile...To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.
Carlos Castaneda
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Inner silence works from the moment you begin to accrue it. What the old sorcerers were after was the final dramatic, end result of reaching that individual threshold of silence.
Carlos Castaneda
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Personal history must be constantly renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and their expectations.
Carlos Castaneda
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If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.
Carlos Castaneda