Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Master, spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist. He is revered throughout the world for his powerful teachings and bestselling books on mindfulness and peace. The main concept of his teaching is mindful living. He teaches how to live happily in the present moment. In this article, we want to share with you 50 inspiring Thich Nhat Hanh quotes about mindfulness. We hope that these powerful Thich Nhat Hanh quotes will inspire you to practice mindful living in your everyday life.

Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

#1

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#2

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#3

“Touching the present moment, we realize that the present is made of the past and is creating the future.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#4

“To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past or worries about the future. If you are firmly grounded in the present moment, the past can be an object of inquiry, the object of your mindfulness and concentration. You can attain many insights by looking into the past. But you are still grounded in the present moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#5

“The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don’t wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#6

“Sometimes we don’t need to eat or drink as much as we do, but it has become a kind of addiction. We feel so lonely. Loneliness is one of the afflictions of modern life. It is similar to the Third and Fourth Precepts – we feel lonely, so we engage in conversation, or even in a sexual relationship, hoping that the feeling of loneliness will go away. Drinking and eating can also be the result of loneliness. You want to drink or overeat in order to forget your loneliness, but what you eat may bring toxins into your body. When you are lonely, you open the refrigerator, watch TV, read magazines or novels, or pick up the telephone to talk. But unmindful consumption always makes things worse.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#7

“Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#8

“Our own life has to be our message.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#9

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all … That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#10

“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#11

“If you live without awareness it is the same as being dead. You cannot call that kind of existence being alive. Many of us live like dead people because we live without awareness. We carry our dead bodies with us and circulate throughout the world. We are pulled into the past or we are pulled forward into the future or we are caught by our projects or our despair and anger. We are not truly alive; we are not inhabited by awareness of the miracle of being alive.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#12

“Because you are alive, everything is possible.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#13

“In Asia, we say that there are three sources of energy – sexual, breath, and spirit…You need to know how to reestablish the balance, or you may act irresponsibly. According to Taoism and Buddhism, there are practices to help reestablish that balance, such as meditation or martial arts. You can learn the ways to channel your sexual energy into deep realizations in the domains of art and meditation.

The second source of energy is khi, breath energy. Life can be described as a process of burning. In order to burn, every cell in our body needs nutrition and oxygen… Some people cultivate their khi by refraining from smoking and talking, or by practicing conscious breathing after talking a lot…

The third source of energy is spirit energy. When you don’t sleep at night, you lose some of this kind of energy. Your nervous system becomes exhausted and you cannot study or practice meditation well, or make good decisions. You don’t have a clear mind because of lack of sleep or from worrying too much. Worry and anxiety drain this source of energy. So don’t worry. Don’t stay up too late. Keep your nervous system healthy. Prevent anxiety. These kinds of practices cultivate the third source of energy.

You need this source of energy to practice meditation well. A spiritual breakthrough requires the power of your spirit energy, which comes about through concentration and knowing how to preserve this source of energy. When you have strong spirit energy, you only have to focus it on an object, and you will have a breakthrough. If you don’t have them the light of your concentration will not shine brightly, because the light emitted is very weak.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#14

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#15

“In true love, there is no pride.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#16

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#17

“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds – our own prejudices, fears, and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. ” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#18

“Many people think excitement is happiness… But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#19

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#20

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#21

“We will not just say, “I love him very much,” but instead, “I will do something so that he will suffer less.” The mind of compassion is truly present when it is effective in removing another person’s suffering.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#22

“If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#23

“The Three Kinds of Pride are:
1) thinking I am better than the other(s);
2) thinking I am worse than the other(s);
3) thinking I am just as good as the other(s).”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

#24

“I am determined to practice deep listening. I am determined to practice loving speech.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#25

“Due to attachment, anger, and foolishness, I have committed numberless mistakes in speech, deed, and thought. I bow my head and repent. I vow from today to begin anew, to live day and night in mindfulness, and not to repeat my previous mistakes.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#26

“But sharing does not mean wanting others to abandon their own spiritual roots and embrace your faith. That would be cruel. People are stable and happy only when they are firmly rooted in their own tradition and culture. To uproot them would make them suffer. There are already enough people uprooted from their tradition today, and they suffer greatly, wandering around like hungry ghosts, looking for something to fill their spiritual needs. We must help them return to their tradition. Each tradition must establish a dialogue with its own people first, especially with those young people who are lost and alienated.

During the last fifteen years, while sharing the Buddha’s Dharma in the West, I always urged my Western friends to go back to their own traditions and rediscover the values that are there, those values they have not been able to touch before. The practice of Buddhist meditation can help them do so, and many have succeeded. Buddhism is made of non-Buddhist elements. Buddhism has no separate self. When you are a truly happy Christian, you are also a Buddhist. And vice versa.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#27

“I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight… I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#28

“It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#29

“As long as you find something beautiful, good, and true to believe in and abide by, you have the equivalent of God in your life.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#30

“One of the greatest gifts we can offer people is to embody nonattachment and nonfear. This is true teaching, more precious than money or material resources. Many of us are very afraid, and this fear distorts our lives and makes us unhappy. We cling to objects and to people like a drowning person clings to a floating log. Practicing to realize nondiscrimination, to see the interconnectedness and impermanence of all things, and to share this wisdom with others, we are giving the gift of nonfear. Everything is impermanent. This moment passes. That person walks away. Happiness is still possible.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#31

“Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#32

“We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#33

“Don’t do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#34

“Every person is a world to explore.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#35

“At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#36

In modern life, people think that their body belongs to them and they can do anything they want to it. When they make such a determination, the law supports them. This is one of the manifestations of individualism. But, according to the teachings of emptiness, non-self, and interbeing, your body is not yours alone. It also belongs to your ancestors, your parents, future generations, and all other living beings. Everything, even the trees, and the clouds have come together to bring about the presence of your body.

Keeping your body healthy is the best way to express your gratitude to the whole cosmos, to all ancestors, and also not to betray future generations. You practice this precept for everyone. If you are healthy, everyone can benefit from it. When you are able to get out of the shell of your small self, you will see that you are interrelated to everyone and everything, that your every action is linked with the whole of humankind and the whole cosmos. To keep yourself healthy in body and mind is to be kind to all beings. The Fifth Precept is about health and healing.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#37

“Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#38

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#39

“Compassion is a verb.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#40

“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#41

“There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#42

“When an unpleasant feeling, physical or mental, arises in him, the wise man does not worry, complain, weep, pound his chest, pull his hair, torture his body and mind, or faint. He calmly observes his feeling and is aware that it is only a feeling. He knows that he is not the feeling, and he is not caught by the feeling. Therefore, the pain cannot bind him. When he has a painful physical feeling, he knows that there is a painful physical feeling. He does not lose his calmness, does not worry, does not fear, and does not complain. Thus the feeling remains a painful physical feeling, and it is not able to grow and ravage his whole being.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#43

“Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#44

“In modern society, most of us don’t want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book – we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#45

“In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#46

“You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. The kingdom of God, the Pure Land, nirvana, happiness, and liberation are all you.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#47

“Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#48

“Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and failure to listen, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and compassionate listening to relieve suffering and promote reconciliation and peace in myself and among other people, ethnic and religious groups, and nations. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to speaking truthfully using words that inspire confidence, joy, and hope. I am determined not to speak when anger manifests in me. I will practice mindful breathing and walking to recognize and look deeply into my anger.

I know that the roots of anger can be found in my wrong perceptions and lack of understanding of the suffering in myself and the other person. I will speak and listen in such a way as to help myself and the other person to transform suffering and see the way out of difficult situations. I am determined not to spread the news that I do not know to be certain and not to utter words that can cause division or discord. I will practice diligently with joy and skillfulness so as to nourish my capacity for understanding, love, and inclusiveness, gradually transforming the anger, violence, and fear that lie deep in my consciousness.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#49

“Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk. We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

#50

“When we recognize that we have a habit of replaying old events and reacting to new events as if they were the old ones, we can begin to notice when that habit energy comes up. We can then gently remind ourselves that we have another choice. We can look at the moment as it is, a fresh moment, and leave the past for a time when we can look at it compassionately.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Don Miguel Ruiz is a spiritual teacher and an author of Toltec spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts. His work is best-received among people that focus on ancient teachings as a means to achieve spiritual enlightenment. In his method, Don Miguel Ruiz combined the wisdom of the Toltecs with modern scientific views and developed a series of practical recommendations. The result of his research was the book “Four Agreements”, published in 1997. In this book, Don Miguel Ruiz proposes a number of concrete steps that can lead to long-term personal transformation. In this article, we want to share with you the most inspiring Don Miguel Ruiz quotes that can stimulate your self-transformation on your path to spiritual enlightenment.

Here they are 33 inspirational Don Miguel Ruiz quotes that we picked specially for you!

Don Miguel Ruiz Quotes

#1

“God is life. God is life in action. The best way to say, “I love you, God,” is to live your life doing your best. The best way to say, “Thank you, God,” is by letting go of the past and living in the present moment, right here and now. Whatever life takes away from you, let it go. When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment. Letting go of the past means you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#2

Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. – Don Miguel Ruiz

#3

“It’s difficult to try and be what you are not. Being what you are doesn’t require any effort. When you become wise, you accept yourself the way you are, and the complete acceptance of yourself becomes the complete acceptance of everyone else.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#4

“But it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself. There is no way I can take this personally.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#5

“Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement, and it becomes part of our belief system.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#6

“Don’t make assumptions! Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#7

“Wherever you go you will find people lying to you, and as your awareness grows, you will notice that you also lie to yourself. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. You have to trust yourself and choose to believe or not to believe what someone says to you.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#8

“There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#9

“If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn’t walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don’t need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#10

“The whole world can love you, but that love will not make you happy. What will make you happy is the love coming out of you.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#11

“People are starving for love, not knowing their heart is a magical kitchen. Open your heart. Open your magical kitchen and refuse to walk around the world begging for love. In your heart is all the love you need. Your heart can create any amount of love, not just for yourself, but for the whole world.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#12

“We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#13

“It is very interesting how the human mind works. We have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything, in order to feel safe. We have millions of questions that need answers because there are so many things that the reasoning mind cannot explain. It is not important if the answer is correct; just the answer itself makes us feel safe. This is why we make assumptions…We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions…We have agreed that it is not safe to ask questions; we have agreed that if people love us, they should know what we want or how we feel. When we believe something, we assume we are right about it to the point that we will destroy relationships in order to defend our position.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#14

“Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. Their own dream.” -Don Miguel Ruiz

#15

“Taking things personally makes you easy prey for these predators, the black magicians. They can hook you easily with one little opinion and feed you whatever poison they want, and because you take it personally, you eat it up. You eat all their emotional garbage, and now it becomes your garbage. But if you do not take it personally, you are immune in the middle of hell. Immunity to poison in the middle of hell is the gift of this agreement.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#16

“Let everything we do and say be an expression of the beauty of our heart, always based on love.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#17

“And what is the right woman, the right man? Someone who wants to go in the same direction as you do, someone who is compatible with your views and your values – emotionally, physically, economically, spiritually.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#18

“The more you practice gratitude, the more you see how much there is to be grateful for, and your life becomes an ongoing celebration of joy and happiness.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#19

“If you take your happiness and put it in someone’s hands, sooner or later, she is going to break it. If you give your happiness to someone else, she can always take it away. Then if happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love, you are responsible for your happiness.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#20

“The supreme act of forgiveness is when you can forgive yourself for all the wounds you’ve created in your own life. Forgiveness is an act of self-love. When you forgive yourself, self-acceptance begins and self-love grows.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#21

“You express your own divinity by being alive and by loving yourself and others.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#22

“Gossiping has become the main form of communication in human society. It has become the way we feel close to each other because it makes us feel better to see someone else feel as badly as we do.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#23

“The real mission you have in life is to make yourself happy, and in order to be happy, you have to look at what you believe, the way you judge yourself, the way you victimize yourself.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#24

“When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#25

“All of the drama you suffer in your personal life is the result of believing in lies, mainly about yourself.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#26

“True justice is paying only once for each mistake. True injustice is paying more than once for each mistake.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#27

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#28

“When the love comes from somebody else, we can feel it and it’s nice, but when we feel our own love, it is the best thing that can happen to us.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#29

“…Nothing that your partner does is personal. Your partner is dealing with her own garbage. If you don’t take it personally, it will be so easy for you to have a wonderful relationship with your partner.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#30

“I am responsible for what I say, but I am not responsible for what you understand.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#31

“Whatever life takes away from you, let it go.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#32

“Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

#33

“Humans punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe
they should be. They become very self-abusive, and they use other people to abuse themselves as well.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

In this article, we want to share with you Carlos Castaneda quotes. If you’ve read his books, these quotes will help you remember the basic ideas of don Juan’s teachings. And if you have never read his books, then Carlos Castaneda quotes described in this article will help you to get acquainted with this mysterious author and may even inspire you to read his books.

Who is Carlos Castaneda?

Carlos Castaneda is one of the greatest mysteries of the XX century. All we know for sure about this person is that he is the author of ten unique books, each of which became a bestseller, as well as the founder of the publishing company “Cleargreen Inc.“, which currently owns the rights to all his creative heritage. Any other information represents only conjectures, riddles, and assumptions.

Almost throughout his life, Carlos Castaneda hid his personal history, forbade himself to photograph (although a few photos of Castaneda’s still there), and for all life has given only a few interviews.

Carlos Castaneda was a master of hoaxes. Every time he spoke about himself, he came up with a different place of birth, different information about who his parents were, a new “legend” about himself.

His desire to escape from the human eye and avoid any certainty stems from the basic requirement that applies to the magicians of the line of Don Juan – always remain flexible, elusive, not limited to any framework, stereotypes and opinions of people, as well as to avoid any behavioral patterns and reactions. In the terminology of Toltec magicians, this is called “erasing personal history.” Based on this basic premise, we can say for sure that humanity will never know the truth about Carlos Castaneda’s life and whether Don Juan actually existed.

Carlos Castaneda Quotes

#1

“We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Carlos Castaneda

#2

“To seek freedom is the only driving force I know. Freedom to fly off into that infinity out there. Freedom to dissolve; to lift off; to be like the flame of a candle, which, in spite of being up against the light of a billion stars, remains intact, because it never pretended to be more than what it is: a mere candle.” – Carlos Castaneda

#3

“I’m never angry at anybody! No human being can do anything important enough for that. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important. I don’t feel that way any longer.” – Carlos Castaneda

#4

“Self-pity is the real enemy and the source of man’s misery. Without a degree of pity for himself, man could not afford to be as self-important as he is. However, once the force of self-importance is engaged, it develops its own momentum. And it is this seemingly independent nature of self-importance which gives it its fake sense of worth.” – Carlos Castaneda

#5

“A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting. ” – Carlos Castaneda

#6

“A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he’s clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything.” – Carlos Castaneda

#7

“An average man doesn’t do this, though. The world is never a mystery for him, and when he arrives at old age he is convinced he has nothing more to live for. An old man has not exhausted the world. He has exhausted only what people do. But in his stupid confusion, he believes that the world has no more mysteries for him. What a wretched price to pay for our shields!” – Carlos Castaneda

#8

“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you… Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question… Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.” – Carlos Castaneda

#9

“You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life.” – Carlos Castaneda

#10

“For me, the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want 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.” – Carlos Castaneda

#11

“Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level of awareness you find yourself to be.” – Carlos Castaneda

#12

“I have no routines or personal history. One day I found out that they were no longer necessary for me and, like drinking, I dropped them. One must have the desire to drop them and then one must proceed harmoniously to chop them off, little by little. If you have no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with your acts. And above all, no one pins you down with their thoughts. It is best to erase all personal history because that makes us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people. I have, little by little, created a fog around me and my life. And now nobody knows for sure who I am or what I do. Not even I. How can I know who I am, when I am all this?” – Carlos Castaneda

#13

“The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.” – Carlos Castaneda

#14

“The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue.” – Carlos Castaneda

#15

“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.” – Carlos Castaneda

#16

“The world is incomprehensible. We won’t ever understand it; we won’t ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.” – Carlos Castaneda

#17

“To worry is to become accessible, unwittingly accessible. And once you worry you cling to anything out of desperation; and once you cling you are bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever you are clinging to.” – Carlos Castaneda

#18

“In the universe, there is an un-measurable, indescribable force which sorcerers call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link. Sorcerers, or warriors, were concerned with discussing, understanding, and employing that connecting link…Sorcerers, therefore, divide their instruction into two categories; one is for everyday-life state of awareness, the other is for the states of heightened awareness, in which sorcerers obtained knowledge directly from intent, without the distracting intervention of spoken language.” – Carlos Castaneda

#19

“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

#20

“The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That’s the warrior’s way.” – Carlos Castaneda

#21

“Upon learning to see a man becomes everything by becoming nothing. He, so to speak, vanishes and yet he’s there. I would say that this is the time when a man can be or can get anything he desires. But he desires nothing, and instead of playing with his fellow men like they were toys, he meets them in the midst of their folly. The only difference between them is that a man who sees controls his folly, while his fellow men can’t. A man who sees has no longer an active interest in his fellow men. Seeing has already detached him from absolutely everything he knew before.” – Carlos Castaneda

#22

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.” – Carlos Castaneda

#23

“My benefactor told me that my father and mother had lived and died just to have me and that their own parents had done the same for them. He said that warriors were different in that they shift their assemblage points enough to realize the tremendous price that has been paid for their lives. This shift gives them the respect and awe that their parents never felt for life in general, or for being alive in particular.” – Carlos Castaneda

#24

“There is no beginning, the beginning is only in your thought.” – Carlos Castaneda

#25

“What makes us unhappy is to want. Yet if we would learn to cut our wants to nothing, the smallest thing we’d get would be a true gift.” – Carlos Castaneda

#26

“A man of knowledge has no honor, no dignity, no family, no name, no country, but only life to be lived, and under these circumstances, his only tie to his fellow men is his controlled folly.” – Carlos Castaneda

#27

“Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it – what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellowmen. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.” – Carlos Castaneda

#28

“You take yourself too seriously, ” he said slowly. “You are too damn important in your own mind. That must be changed! You are so goddamn important that you feel justified to be annoyed with everything. You’re so damn important that you can afford to leave if things don’t go your way. I suppose you think that shows you have character. That’s nonsense! You’re weak and conceited!” – Dom Juan” – Carlos Castaneda

#29

“Nobody is born a warrior in exactly the same way that no one is born an average man”. – Carlos Castaneda

#30

“He said that I was a man. And like any man I deserved everything that was a man’s lot – joy, pain, sadness, and struggle – and that the nature of one’s acts was unimportant as long as one acted as a warrior. Lowering his voice to almost a whisper, he said that if I really felt that my spirit was distorted I should simply fix it – purge it, make it perfect – because there was no other task in our entire lives which was more worthwhile. Not to fix the spirit was to seek death, and that was the same as to seek nothing since death was going to overtake us regardless of anything. He paused for a long time and then he said with a tone of profound conviction, “To seek the perfection of the warrior’s spirit is the only task worthy of our manhood.” – Carlos Castaneda