P. D. Ouspensky
Russian esotericist, philosopher, and chief literary heir of G. I. Gurdjieff — the man whose 1949 In Search of the Miraculous became the canonical written record of Gurdjieff's oral teaching of the Fourth Way, and whose own books Tertium Organum (1912), A New Model of the Universe (1931), and The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution (1950) developed an independent line of esoteric philosophy alongside the Work. Born 1878 in Moscow, Ouspensky encountered Gurdjieff in 1915, worked closely with him until their split in 1924, then taught his own groups in London for the rest of his life. He died in 1947, two years before In Search of the Miraculous was published. Through that book — and through his pupils, who include Maurice Nicoll, Rodney Collin, and Lord Pentland — Ouspensky became one of the principal channels through which Fourth Way teaching reached the English-speaking world.
quotes in library
Quotes by P. D. Ouspensky
115 quotes“Eternal recurrence is one possible understanding of higher time.”
“That this same life repeats again and again, with subtle variation.”
“And that conscious work is the only way to escape this circle.”
“This is the teaching of Pythagoras and the ancients.”
“It survives in the Fourth Way under a different language.”
“What we call 'I' is not one but many.”
“Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation says 'I.'”
“And in each case it seems to be taken for granted that this 'I' belongs to the whole.”
“This is the chief feature of our being.”
“In place of one permanent and unchangeable I, there is a multitude of small, separate I's, very often quite unknown to one another.”
“Often hostile to one another. Often working against one another.”
“This explains why a man so often promises something and so often fails to do it.”
“The I that promised is not the I that has to deliver.”
“To create a real I requires unifying the small I's around a center.”
“That center is what the Work aims to develop.”
“Without this center, change is impossible.”
“With it, real change becomes possible.”
“Identification is the chief obstacle to consciousness.”
“Man cannot be saved or changed by any external force.”
Explore More Teachers
Discover wisdom from 500+ spiritual teachers across all traditions.
Browse All Teachers