Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castanedawas an American author with a Ph.D. in anthropology...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 December 1925
CountryUnited States of America
act convince learn short since
I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
real convince-us agree-upon
Our normal expectations about reality are created by a social consensus. We are taught how to see and understand the world. The trick of socialization is to convince us that the descriptions we agree upon define the limits of the real world. What we call reality is only one way of seeing the world, a way that is supported by social consensus.
bunch convinced
Sorcerers are convinced that all of us are a bunch of nincompoops. We can never relinquish our crummy control voluntarily, thus we have to be tricked
absolute actions acts conditions fools-and-foolishness four fulfilled lose lost man mistakes pitiful quality regret regrets suffers wide
When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisitesto be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurancethere are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.
men
The world around us is a mystery, and men are no better than anything else.
feeling
Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy, and vain.
examining exploiting men prevents timid
Being timid prevents us from examining and exploiting our lot as men
emptiness filled life
Theres no emptiness in the life of a warrior. Everything is filled to the brim. Everything is filled to the brim, and everything is equal.
brought determines matter personal
It doesnt matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.
advantages constitution explain
But we just had to explain to them the advantages and disadvantages of amending our Constitution.
amount either ourselves quotes scholars-and-scholarship work
We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
deception fail using worthwhile
it's better to get something worthwhile done using deception than to fail to get something worthwhile done using truth.
mystery sheer thus treat understand
The world is incomprehensible. We wont ever understand it; we wont ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.
continuity human meaning misfortune mysterious none sufficient
That is the misfortune of human beings. None of us have sufficient time, and your continuity has no meaning in this awesome, mysterious world.