Faith cannot be given to man. Faith arises in a man and increases in its action in him not as the result of automatic learning, that is, not from any… - George Gurdjieff

I also very well remember that on another occasion the father dean said: ‘In order that at responsible age a man may be a real man and not a parasite, his education must without fail be based on the following ten principles. ‘From early childhood there should be instilled in the child: Belief in receiving punishment for disobedience. Hope of receiving reward only for merit. Love of God — but indiference to the saints. Remorse of conscience for the ill-treatment of animals. Fear of grieving parents and teachers. Fearlessness towards devils, snakes and mice. Joy in being content merely with what one has. Sorrow at the loss of the goodwill of others. Patient endurance of pain and hunger. The striving early to earn one’s bread.

Real art is knowledge not talent.

From the moment that my essence began to perceive impressions directly and to constate independently that, from what was proceeding, there was being entirely destroyed, as it were, in my common presence, firstly, the parts of my planetary body, and then, little by little, also the localizations of the ‘second’ and ‘third’ being-centers.

At the same time, a constatation was definitely made that the functioning of these latter centers passed gradually to my ‘thinking-center’ and became proper to it, with the consequence that the ‘thinking-center,’ with the increasing intensity of its functioning, became the ‘unique-powerful-perceiver’ of everything actualized outside of itself, and the autonomous initiator of the constating of everything proceeding in the whole of my presence as well as outside of it.