Quote

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.

P.D. Ouspensky

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

P.D. Ouspensky
Anything
Kept
Might
Difficulty
Believe
Realize
Translating
Really
Realizing
Ceased
Things
Heard
Habitual
Never
Hope
Translate
People
Language
Chief
Found
Chiefs

More quotes by P.D. Ouspensky

Image
A symbol may serve to transfer our intuitions and to suggest new ones only so long as its meaning is not defined.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
People live in sleep, do everything in sleep, and do not know they are asleep.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Psychology is sometimes called a new science. This is quite wrong. Psychology is, perhaps, the oldest science, and, unfortunately, in its most essential features a forgotten science.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Love is the eternally burning fire in which humanity & all the world are being purified.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
There is no tyranny more ferocious than the tyranny of morality. Everything is sacrificed to it.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Possibly the most interesting first impression of my life came from the world of dreams.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
When a man begins to know himself a little he will see in himself many things that are bound to horrify him. So long as a man is not horrified at himself he knows nothing about himself.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Seek the Path, do not seek attainment, Seek for the Path within yourself. Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself, not without yourself.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Can one alter one´s chief feature? asked someone else. First it is necessary to know it. If you know it, much will depend on the quality of your knowing. If you know it well, then it is possible to change it.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
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.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation says I. And in each case it seems to be taken for granted that this I belongs to the Whole, to the whole man, and that a thought, a desire, or an aversion is expressed by this Whole.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
A religion contradicting science and a science contradicting religion are equally false.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Art is the communication of ecstasy.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
If a man gives way to all his desires, or panders to them, there will be no inner struggle in him, no 'friction,' no fire. But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with desires that hinder him, he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
There is no possibility of remembering what has been found and understood, and later repeating it to oneself. It disappears as a dream disappears. Perhaps it is all nothing but a dream.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
One cannot keep all old views and opinions and acquire new ones.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Most people can accept the truth only in the form of a lie.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Desire is when you do what you want, will is when you can do what you do not want.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem.
P.D. Ouspensky
Image
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.
P.D. Ouspensky