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Carlos Castaneda Quotes

1925–1998 Peru

Carlos Castañeda (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was an American writer. Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe a training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named don Juan Matus.

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Random Carlos Castaneda quote

59 quotes

Whenever the internal dialogue stops, the world collapses, and extraordinary facets of ourselves surface, as though they had been kept heavily guarded by our words.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior must learn to make every act count, since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

Losing the human form brings the freedom to remember your self. Losing the human form is like a spiral. It gives you the freedom to remember and this in turn makes you even freer.

The Eagle's Gift (1981)

Dwelling upon the self too much produces a terrible fatigue. A man in that position is deaf and blind to everything else. The fatigue makes him cease to see the marvels all around him.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior doesn't need personal history. One day, he finds it is no longer necessary for him, and he drops it.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

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.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as grounds for regret but as a living challenge.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

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 that to behave as though we knew everything.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior doesn't know remorse for anything he has done, because to isolate one's acts as being mean, or ugly, or evil is to place an unwarranted importance on the self.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

One shouldn't worry about taking pictures or making tape recordings. Those are superfluities of sedate lives. One should worry about the spirit, which is always receding.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

At the level of luminous beings the range is so broad that it is futile to try to establish limits--thus, the energy of a luminous being can be transformed through will into anything.

The Eagle's Gift (1981)

A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior takes responsibility for his acts, for the most trivial of his acts. An average man acts out his thoughts, and never takes responsibility for what he does.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

The things that people do cannot under any conditions be more important than the world. And thus a warrior treats the world as an endless mystery and what people do as an endless folly.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior must cultivate the feeling that he has everything needed for the extravagant journey that is his life. What counts for a warrior is being alive. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior is someone who seeks freedom. Sadness is not freedom. We must snap out of it. Having a sense of detachment entails having a moment's pause to reassess situations.

The Eagle's Gift (1981)

A warrior thinks of his death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

There's no emptiness in the life of a warrior. Everything is filled to the brim. Everything is filled to the brim, and everything is equal.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

A warrior never worries about his fear. Instead, he thinks about the wonders of "seeing" the flow of energy! The rest is frills, unimportant frills.

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Carlos Castaneda (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.