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About this quote

What does it mean?
Human beings differ vastly from one another in ways deeper than species differences. Knowledge depends on this inner state, which people often ignore.
In plain terms
People are far more different than we realize, and knowledge depends on who we are.
What can you take from it?
Recognize that inner being shapes what you can know.

Where it applies

  • self-improvement
  • teaching others
  • philosophical study

Putting it to work

  • examine your state
  • consider others depth

Questions to consider

  • How does your current state affect what you learn?
  • Do you recognize differences in others being?

Another view

Understanding being requires deep introspection that many avoid.

More from G. I. Gurdjieff

  1. Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small 'I's, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into c…

    Permalink to quote #23
  2. In literature, science, art, philosophy, religion, in individual and above all in social and political life, we can observe how the line of the development of …

    Permalink to quote #25
  3. Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation, says 'I'.

    Permalink to quote #22

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