"I said to don Juan that it was not generosity that made me give away the packages but cold fury. I had to do something to calm myself, and that was … - Carlos Castañeda

"A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with
absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps."
I asked him why was it so and he said that when a man has fulfilled those four requisites
there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his acts lose the blundering quality of a fool’s acts. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.

Вещи, которые делают люди, ни при каких условиях не могут быть более важными, чем мир. И, таким образом, воин относится к миру как к бесконечной тайне, а к тому, что делают люди, — как к бесконечной глупости.

I had been reared, perhaps like everyone else, to have a readiness to accept man as an essentially weak and fallible creature.