Don Juan Castaneda Quotes & Sayings

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

In the Art of Dreaming Don Juan tells Carlos, " ... most of our energy goes into upholding our importance ... if we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things would happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of our grandeur; and two we would provide ourselves with enough energy to ... catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe." — Carlos Castaneda

What I find powerful is a person with
the confidence to be her own self. — Oprah Winfrey

There's no way to put a limit on what one may accomplish individually if the intent is an impeccable intent. Don Juan's teachings are not spiritual. I repeat this because the question has come to the surface over and over. The idea of spirituality doesn't fit with the iron discipline of a warrior. The most important thing for a shaman like don Juan is the idea of pragmatism. — Carlos Castaneda

"Only if one loves this earth with unbending passion can one relieve one's sadness," don Juan said. "Warriors are always joyful because their love is unalterable and their beloved, the earth, embraces them and bestows upon them inconceivable gifts. The sadness belongs only to those who hate the very thing that gives shelter to their beings." Don Juan again caressed the ground with tenderness. "This lovely being, which is alive to its last recesses and understands every feeling, soothed me, it cured me of my pains, and finally when I had fully understood my love for it, it taught me freedom." — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing. — Carlos Castaneda

Seek and see all the marvels around you. You will get tired of looking at yourself alone, and that fatigue will make you deaf and blind to everything else. - Don Juan — Carlos Castaneda

He wasn't attached to Scientology like I was. For him it was simply a tool to better your life. Then, if it wasn't doing that, it was time to leave the church. — Leah Remini

Nobody knows who I am or what I do. Not even I.
Don Juan Matus
— Carlos Castaneda

There are two sides to a person's being - the superconscious and the conscious. These have reverberations in the popular works of Carlos Castaneda, in the don Juan terminology of the tonal and the nagual. — Frederick Lenz

It is wonderful what you can do when you have to. — C.S. Lewis

I fear that, with our current veneration for the natural and the real, we have arrived at the opposite pole to all idealism, and have landed in the region of the waxworks. — Friedrich Nietzsche

I studied the shape of my friend's hands, and how he clasped them. I could smell his skin and hair in the cold air of the church, and stood aching, my face a devout mask stretched over a rotten soul. On — Maria McCann

Don Juan in Carlos Castaneda's A Separate Peace: The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse. — Michael E. Gerber

The station was crowded by the time the express pulled up. I felt then, as I do now, that there is no joy like the arrival of a train [ ... ] particularly a European train that will carry you south. — Elizabeth Kostova

We make a living by what we give; and live a life by what we have yet to give. — George Alexiou

You remember it your way and I'll remember it mine. — Jon Chopan

Milla Jovovich introduced me to [anthropologist and author of the Don Juan series of books involving shamanic peyote rituals] Carlos Castaneda because I was all into the hallucinogens for a minute. — Michelle Rodriguez

Anyone who has chanced like me to roam through desolate mountains and studied at length their fantastic shapes and drunk the invigorating air of their valleys can understand why I wish to describe and depict these magic scenes for others. — Mikhail Lermontov

Man lives only to learn. And if he learns it is because it is the nature of his lot, for good or bad. — Carlos Castaneda

One cannot enter don Juan's world intellectually, like a dilettante seeking fast and fleeting knowledge. Nor, in don Juan's world, can anything be verified absolutely. The only thing we can do is arrive at a state of increased awareness that allows us to perceive the world around us in a more inclusive manner. — Carlos Castaneda

The right and the physical power of the people to resist injustice, are really the only securities that any people ever can have for their liberties. Practically no government knows any limit to its power but the endurance of the people. — Lysander Spooner

Don Juan, in the teacings of Carlos Castaneda, makes the same point. You have to fool people into seeking knowlege. People will not do it of their own volition. — Frederick Lenz