Quotes by Carlos Castaneda

What is wrong with us human beings, and has been wrong since time immemorial, is that without ever stating it in so many words, we believe that we have entered the realm of immortality. We behave as if we are never going to die - an infantile arrogance. But even more injurious than this sense of immortality is what comes with it : the sense that we can engulf this inconcievable universe with our minds.

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

The third point of reference is freedom of perception; it is intent; it is spirit; the somersault of thought into the miraculous; the act of reaching beyond our boundaries and touching the inconceivable.

Any 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.

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart.There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length.And there I travel—looking, looking, breathlessly.

"Only as a warrior can one survive the path of knowledge, " he said. "Because the art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man." 

The spirit listens only when the speaker speaks in gestures.  And gestures do not mean signs or body movements, but acts of true abandon, acts of largesse, of humor.  As a gesture to the spirit, warriors bring out the best of themselves and silently offer it to the abstract

If a warrior wants to pay back for all the favors he has received, and he has no one in particular to address his payment to, he can address it to the spirit of man,  That's always a very small account, and whatever one puts in it is more than enough.

I am already given to the power that rules my fate. And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend. I have no thoughts, so I will see. I fear nothing, so I will remember myself. Detached and at ease, I will dart past the Eagle to be free.

one ,must have something to die for in order to have something to live for