"…But in order to enable essence to grow up, it is first of all necessary to weaken the constant pressure of personality upon it, because the obstacles to the growth of essence are contained in personality."

(Fragments)

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/current-li...

"...The struggle against lying in oneself and the struggle against fears is the first positive work which a man begins to do."

(Gurdjieff, in "In Search of the Miraculous.")

"...These fears must first be found & then destroyed. The fears of which I speak are usually connected with the lies among which a man lives. You must realize that they have nothing in common with the fear of spiders or of mice or of a dark room, or with unaccountable nervous fears.

"…For this it must find the attitude in which it is free, without tension."

(Jeanne de Salzmann)

"…If one centre is tired, it does not participate in the work, and you will not obtain any real result. You have to work with all the centres.”

(Gurdjieff)

Full commentary in link.

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/89-maurice...

"...The multitude of business in which we live makes, as it were, a daily uproar. We cannot hear. Later on, perhaps, we begin to listen, when we decide that we must become simpler and can detach ourselves from our roles in life."

(Maurice Nicoll - Commentaries, Vol.I)

"...We have to remember always that there are higher influences playing on us at this moment but that if we are glued to our senses and completely identified with all that we are doing, we cannot become aware of these influences..."

"…Consciousness is an electrical phenomenon which arises from a state of being which we can feel."

(Orage)

"How can I keep an inner silence, a quietness, that will help me become aware of that still, small voice and cease to be deafened by the clamor and hysteria of my usual state? How can I earn the right to have my own director, my own conscience, as a guide?"

(A.L.Staveley)

"...Waiting for what? For the space in myself, to be prepared by me, where it can exist freely. That is why I am here. That is why we are all here. Sometimes I think we forget this, or rather, we fail to remember it. There are many aspects of the work but only one end…"

"...That is, it is possible for me to have this, as it is called, 'representative of the Creator' in me. In fact it is already there – waiting… waiting…"

(A.L. Staveley. From Themes, Conscience)