Quotes from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“an honest being who does not behave absurdly has no
chance at all of becoming famous, or even of being noticed, however kind
and sensible he may be.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“In my opinion, what will be troublesome for you in all this is chiefly that in childhood there was implanted in you—and has now become perfectly harmonized with your general psyche—an excellently working automatism for perceiving all kinds of new impressions, thanks to which “blessing” you have now, during your responsible life, no need to make any individual effort whatsoever.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Consider everything belonging to another as if it were your own, and so treat it.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“When my grandmother—may she attain the Kingdom of Heaven—was dying, my mother, as was then the custom, took me to her bedside and, as I kissed her right hand, my dear grandmother placed her dying left hand on my head and said in a whisper, yet very distinctly: “Eldest of my grandsons! Listen and always remember my strict injunction to you: In life never do as others do.” Having said this, she gazed at the bridge of my nose and, evidently noticing my perplexity and my obscure understanding of what she had said, added somewhat angrily and imperiously: “Either do nothing—just go to school—or do something nobody else does Whereupon she immediately, without hesitation and with a perceptible impulse of disdain for all around her, and with commendable self-cognizance, gave up her soul directly into the hands of His Faithfulness, the Archangel Gabriel.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Never will he understand the sufferings of another, who has not experienced them himself, though he have divine Reason and the nature of a genuine devil!”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Everything existing in the world “falls to the bottom.” The “bottom” for any part of the Universe is its nearest “stability,” and this stability is the point toward which all the lines of force from all directions converge.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“What I said was this: ‘Good. You have a religion, a faith in something. It is very good to have faith in something, whatever it may be, even if you don’t know exactly in whom or in what—even if you have not the least idea of the significance and the possibilities of what you have faith in. To have faith, whether consciously or even quite unconsciously, is very necessary and desirable for every being. ‘And it is desirable because it is by faith, and by faith alone, that there can appear the intensity of being-self-consciousness necessary for everyone, as well as the valuation of one’s own personal being as a particle of everything existing in the Universe. ” ‘But what has the destruction of the existence of another being to do with this faith—above all when you destroy it in the name of its Creator? Does not that “life,” which He created as He created yours, have the same value as your own? ” ‘Making use of your psychic strength and cunning, that is, those data with which our Common Creator has endowed you for the perfecting of your Reason, you take advantage of the psychic weakness of other beings and destroy their existence.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“On the planet Earth also, three-brained beings are formed, and they too contain all the data for higher being-bodies to be coated in them. “But in ‘strength of spirit’ they do not begin to compare with the beings breeding on the little planet I just mentioned The external coating of the three-brained beings of that planet Earth closely resembles our own, except that their skin is a little slimier than ours Moreover, they have no tails, and their heads are without horns But the worst thing about them is their feet, for they have no hoofs”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“it was customary in long-past centuries on Earth for every man bold enough to aspire to the right to be considered by others and to consider himself a “conscious thinker” to be instructed, while still in the early years of his responsible existence, that man has two kinds of mentation one kind, mentation by thought, expressed by words always possessing a relative meaning, and another kind, proper to all animals as well as to man, which I would call “mentation by form.” The second kind of mentation, that is, “mentation by form”—through which, by the way, the exact meaning of all writing should be perceived and then assimilated after conscious confrontation with information previously acquired—is determined in people by the conditions of geographical locality, climate, time, and in general the whole environment in which they have arisen and in which their existence has flowed up to adulthood. Thus, in the brains of people of different races living in different geographical localities under different conditions, there arise in regard to one and the same thing or idea quite different independent forms, which during the flow of associations evoke in their being a definite sensation giving rise to a definite picturing, and this picturing is expressed by some word or other that serves only for its outer subjective expression. That is why each word for the same thing or idea almost always acquires for people of different geographical localities and races a quite specific and entirely different so to say “inner content.” In other words, if in the “presence” of a man who has arisen and grown up in a given locality a certain “form” has been fixed as a result of specific local influences and impressions, this “form” evokes in him by association the sensation of a definite “inner content,” and consequently a definite picturing or concept, for the expression of which he uses some word that has become habitual and, as I said, subjective to him, but the hearer of that word—in whose being, owing to the different conditions of his arising and growth, a form with a different “inner content” has been fixed for the given word—will always perceive and infallibly understand that word in quite another sense.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Here it is interesting to remark that if at the present time you were to ask any of the beings there about this writer, he would certainly recognize his name and speak of him as an extraordinary being. “But if you went on to ask what he had written, it would turn out that most of them, if of course they confessed the truth, had never read a single one of his books. “All the same they would talk about him and discuss him, and splutteringly insist that he was a being with an unparalleled mind and a phenomenal knowledge of the psyche of the beings dwelling on the planet Earth.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Personally I liked best of all the three-centered beings dwelling on the planet ‘Saturn ‘ Their outer form is quite unlike ours, resembling that of the bird-being, ‘raven. ‘“It is interesting to remark, by the way, that for some reason or other these raven-beings are found not only on *”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“different forms. “The verbal intercourse of these raven-beings of the planet Saturn is somewhat like our own. But their way of speaking is the most beautiful I have ever heard. “It can be compared to the music of our best singers when with all their being they sing in a minor key. “And as for the quality of their relations with each other—I don’t even know how to describe it. It can be known only by existing among them and having the experience oneself. “All that can be said is that these bird-beings have hearts exactly like those of the angels nearest our Endless Maker and Creator. “They exist strictly according to the ninth commandment of our Creator: ‘Consider everything belonging to another as if it were your own, and so treat it.’ “Later, I must certainly tell you in more detail about those three-brained beings who arise and exist on the planet Saturn, since one of my real friends during the whole period of my exile in that solar system was a being of that planet, who had the exterior coating of a raven and whose name was Harharkh.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Before going on with this first chapter, which serves as an introduction to all that I plan to write, I wish to inform your so-called “pure waking consciousness” of the fact that, in the chapters following this warning, I shall expound my thoughts intentionally in such a sequence and with such logical confrontation that the essence of certain real ideas may pass automatically from this “waking consciousness,” which most people in their ignorance mistake for the real consciousness, but which I affirm and experimentally prove is the fictitious one, into what you call the “subconscious”— which in my opinion ought to be the real human consciousness—in order that these concepts may mechanically bring about by themselves that transformation which in general should proceed in the common presence of a man and give him, by means of his own active mentation, the results proper to him as a man and not merely as a one- or two-brained animal I decided to do this without fail so that this introductory chapter, intended as I have already said to awaken your consciousness, may fully justify its purpose and, reaching not only your, in my opinion, “fictitious consciousness” but also your real consciousness, that is to say, what you call your “subconscious,” may compel you for the first time to reflect actively. In”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Sunday “Well then, as I have just told you, they devoted each day of the week to productions in one or another special branch of knowledge—either works of their hands, or some other form of consciously designed being-manifestation “Thus, Monday was devoted to the first group, and this day was called the ‘day of religious and civil ceremonies’, “Tuesday was allotted to the second group, and was called the ‘day of architecture’, “Wednesday was called the ‘day of painting’, “Thursday, the ‘day of religious and popular dances’, “Friday, the ‘day of sculpture’, “Saturday, the ‘day of the mysteries’ or, as it was also called, the ‘day of the theater’, “Sunday, the ‘day of music and song”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“In accordance with that definite property of the ‘common integral vibration,’ or the ‘white ray,’ during the process of its transformations about which I have just spoken and which was already familiar to the learned Babylonian painters, each of its ‘center-of-gravity vibrations’ or one of the separate colors of the ‘white ray’ always ensues from another and is transformed into a third, for example, the color orange is obtained from red, and in turn passes into yellow, and so on and so forth.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“On Sunday, namely the day dedicated to music and song, the learned beings belonging to this group produced every kind of ‘melody’ on various ‘sound-producing instruments,’ as well as with their voices, and then explained to all the other learned beings how the knowledge they wished to transmit was indicated in these works of theirs.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“how there are never crystallized in them any subjective being-convictions formed by their own logical deliberations—as in general is proper to three-brained beings—but instead, only those convictions are crystallized that depend exclusively upon the opinions of others.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Owing to the combinations of sequences of sounds, there arose simultaneously in the presence of beings different sorts of impulses evoking various contradictory sensations, which in their turn gave rise to unusual experiencings and reflex movements not proper to them.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“As he was rummaging about, a book called ‘The Gospels’ fell into his hands. ” ‘The Gospels’ is the name given there to a book written once upon a time by a certain Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about Jesus Christ, a Messenger from our Endlessness to that planet. “This book is widely circulated among the three-centered beings there who nominally exist according to the indications of this Messenger. “And when this ‘writer’ happened to come across that book, the notion suddenly popped into his head: ‘Why shouldn’t I also write a gospel?’ “According to certain investigations that I had to make for quite different needs of mine, he must then have deliberated as follows: ‘Am I any worse than those ancient barbarians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Johnnie? ‘At least I am more cultured than they were, and I can certainly write a much better gospel for my contemporaries. ‘What is more, a gospel is the very thing that is needed just now, because the “English” and “Americans” have a great weakness for this book, and the rate of exchange of their pounds and dollars is “not half bad” just now.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“And it was just in these unaccustomed impulses, evoked in the beings by their instrumental and vocal melodies, that the learned members of that group indicated what they wished to transmit.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“Having said all this to my friend, the priest Abdil, I went on: ‘And the most deplorable thing is that every man who destroys the existence of other beings in honor of his revered idols does so with all his heart, convinced beyond any doubt that he is doing a “good deed.” ‘If any one of them should become aware that in destroying the existence of another being he is not only committing an evil deed against the true God and every real saint, but is even causing them, in their essence, sorrow and grief that there should exist in the Great Universe such monsters made “in the image of God,” who can manifest themselves so ruthlessly and without conscience toward other creatures of our Common Father—I repeat, if any one of them should become aware of this, he would certainly agree with all his heart never again to destroy the existence of beings of other forms for sacrificial offerings.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“This admixture of extraneously caused arisings took place in the sacred Theomertmalogos owing to the following and, I must add, unforeseen causes “When each perfected ‘highest being-body’ becomes an independent Individual and acquires its own law of the sacred Triamazikamno, it begins to emanate similarly to the Most Most Holy Sun Absolute, but in miniature And when a great many of these perfected independent Sacred Individuals had been assembled on the Most Most Holy Sun Absolute, then between the emanations of these Sacred Individuals and the atmosphere of the Most Most Holy Sun Absolute there was established what is called a ‘geneotriamazikamnian contact, ‘ which brought on this terrible misfortune for the ‘perfected highest being-parts’ of which I have just told you.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“On this piano the vibrations of each ‘whole tone’ and of each ‘half tone’ of any octave pass from one to another strictly according to the law of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh and thus their vibrations, as occurs always and everywhere in the Universe, mutually help one another to evolve or involve.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“I repeat, if the strings of this piano are tuned correctly, and the required vibrations are evoked in the corresponding strings, the resulting blending of vibrations coincides almost exactly, even mathematically, with the law-conformable totality of vibrations of the substances issuing from corresponding cosmic sources, according to the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“On this piano, ‘vibrations of extraneous origin’ arise from different ‘shocks,’ ‘noises,’ ‘rustlings,’ and for the most part from what are called ‘aerial momentum vibrations,’ which are generally formed in atmospheric space from the natural vibrations already present there.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“And the second reason is that the terrestrial being who made these experiments, thanks to the knowledge of cosmic vibrations he had acquired, was the sole and unique being who, during the many centuries that I existed upon the Earth, recognized and came to know my true nature.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

“I have already told you that certain fragments of this knowledge happened to remain intact and passed from generation to generation through a very limited number of initiated beings there.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff, quote from Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

About the author

Popular quotes

“We might be mad or stupid, but at least we were serious.”
― Lawrence Anthony, quote from Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo

“Sa zadovoljstvom mislim na Andrića...i kada bih mogao da kažem u samo jednoj reči šta me to tera da pobegnem iz Bosne, rekao bih ti: mržnja.”
― Margaret Mazzantini, quote from Twice Born

“The happy passive nature, locked up with itself like a mirror in an airy room, reflects what goes on but demands not to be approached.”
― Elizabeth Bowen, quote from The Death of the Heart

“We teach our girls how not to get raped with a sense of doom, a sense that we are fighting a losing battle. When I was writing this novel, friend after friend came to me telling me of something that had happened to them. A hand up their skirt, a boy who wouldn’t take no for an answer, a night where they were too drunk to give consent but they think it was taken from them anyway. We shared these stories with one another and it was as if we were discussing some essential part of being a woman, like period cramps or contraceptives. Every woman or girl who told me these stories had one thing in common: shame. ‘I was drunk . . . I brought him back to my house . . . I fell asleep at that party . . . I froze and I didn’t tell him to stop . . .’ My fault. My fault. My fault. When I asked these women if they had reported what had happened to the police, only one out of twenty women said yes. The others looked at me and said, ‘No. How could I have proved it? Who would have believed me?’ And I didn’t have any answer for that.”
― Louise O'Neill, quote from Asking For It

“I can talk to fish!" Angel said happily, water dripping off her long, skinny body. "Ask one over for dinner," Fang said, joining us.”
― James Patterson, quote from School's Out - Forever

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.