super-human effort

He also said that any efforts of less than "super-human" strength were of no value anyway, once more pointing out that, in a sense, man's only hope was to fight to attain the "impossible". The only thing worth doing being something that "could not be done".

Fritz Peters - My Journey with a Mystic p.237

culture depends on developed individual man

‘I agree,’ said Orage, ‘but, according to Gurdjieff, the inner development of individual man does not depend on culture, though culture may provide a background. On the contrary, culture depends on developed individual man, or rather a group of men working together. The flowerings and blossomings of culture which occur from time to time in history, apparently for no reason—the building of the Gothic cathedrals, the Renaissance, Shakespeare’s plays - are examples of the results of a group of men working consciously.

Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff p.30

Paris Demonstrations December 1923

 Demonstrations de L´Institut Gurdjieff

Theatre des Champs Elysees

no System is comparable to it in power

No system of gnostic soteriological philosophy that has been published to the modern world is comparable to it in power and intellectual articulation.

Philip Mairet on Gurdjieffs Ideas

John Carswell on Gurdjieff

What he possessed and in abnormal measure were energy, self-confidence and control over his passions.

He had the power of controlled fury which commands instant obedience.

John Carswell - Lives and Letters p.185

words are too weak to describe him

The secret of that personality that so strongly affected us all is hard to define; words to describe him are too weak, or incomplete or too passive.

He was quiet, but the quiet was a smouldering fire that might suddenly flare up with a scorching flame that made us shrink away in startled silence. He was gentle, but when he wished us to learn a lesson that could not be taught by soft and comfortable methods, he was ruthless in his demands and scathing in his condemnation of our failures. He had studied much, and had learned at first hand about such things as the religious basis of the dances of the dervishes.

He was scornful of wordy analysis of philosophical ideas, and his own ideas were always expressed clearly, even crudely, with the earthiness of his peasant stoc ,and seemed to come out of his personal experience and contemplation. Verbosity he always condemned, and in the early days particularly that of Ouspensky, who was an effortless, brilliant but wordy talker.

Anna Butkowsky Hewitt - With Gurdjieff in St.Petersburg and Paris p.142

The Seers School

A school called “The Seers", this school has existed since time immemorial in large artificial caves in Kafirstan, on the heights of Kidjera(Kijera/Kidgera). 

from a introduction to the Gurdjieff Movements in 1923

will be better than an angel

In answer to a remark from someone Gurdjieff began to speak about ‘silly angels’ and said that if a man works on himself and purges himself of undesirable elements he will be better than an angel, a being with more understanding and experience.

C.S. Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff p.107

Sarmoung Enneagram in the Gurdjieff Movie

Gurdjieffs Stop Exercise 1923

Gurdjieffs uniqueness

The more I saw of Gurdjieff the more convinced I became of his uniqueness. He had qualities which I had never seen in anybody else; profound knowledge, immense vitality and complete immunity from fear.

Gurdjieff once said: 'I have very good leather to sell to those who want to make shoes out of it'.

Dr. Kenneth Walker - Venture with Ideas

necessary to hide one's light

He stated that, contrary to the principles expressed in the "Sermon on the Mount", as it was frequently interpreted, it was necessary to "hide one's light" from the ignorant and the uninitiated as they would only, quite automatically, attempt to destroy any such "light" or 'knowledge"; however, it was equally important not to hide that same knowledge or "light" from oneself and from others who were working seriously and honestly towards the same goals of self-development and proper growth.

Fritz Peters - Gurdjieff Remembered (Chapter X)

What happened to Alexander Petrov after 1918?

...Gurdjieff’s group in Moscow. Among them was Alexander Nikanorovich Petrov, one of the chief pupils there. Physically, he was like a healthy young bull, and, as I came to learn, he had a very intelligent mind and was highly gifted in mathematics and engineering.

He was one of Mr. Gurdjieff’s favourite pupils, with whom he worked much on selfconcentration and self-observation.

...the others went to Maikop, where Petrov became director of a state school. Mr Gurdjieff asked him to come to Tiflis when we went there, but he did not come. And when the Bolsheviks again conquered the whole northern Caucasus, he returned to Moscow. Soon, even correspondence with him became impossible.

all quotes are from Hartmann´s - Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff,

please comment if you have any information on Petrov´s life after returning to Moscow about 1918

egg and chicken

Gabo, an old Russian pupil, one day told him that he was eating too much fat, it was not good for him. With a quizzical look Gurdjieff asked, "Since when has egg told something to chicken?"

C.S. Nott - Further Teachings of Gurdjieff p.80

how close people live to the truth

Crumbs of truth are scattered everywhere; and those who know and understand can see and marvel how close people live to the truth, yet how blind they are and powerless to penetrate it.

Views from the Real World p.55

dances are a kind of language

Observe how people dance. Each nationality has its own way of dancing. You can always tell the nationality by the way a man dances. In the East, where traditions are much stronger, you can even tell which tribe or village people come from by the way they dance. In this way dances become like a kind of language by which people - unconsciously, of course - tell us about themselves. It is the same with everything. Each nation has a limited repertoire of movements which come from the impressions of childhood.

from a Gurdjieff Talk in London 1922 
(The Study of Psychology)

I worked harder than any man on earth

I hate you because all my life - that is half a century - I have labored and suffered for you, day and night, to discover why you are unhappy, and whether it was possible to make a man, who was quite indifferent to me, happy. I have worked so hard that I can freely say harder than any man on earth. The result of it all is that all who have ever known me will either hate me or call me a speculator or an enthusiastic psychopathic visionary or what-not.

Gurdjieff - Ecstacy of Revelation

finding a teacher

To a man who is searching with all his being, with all his inner self, comes the unfailing conviction that to find out how to know in order to do is possible only by finding a guide with experience and knowledge, who will take on his spiritual guidance and become his teacher. And it is here that a man's flair is more important than anywhere else. He chooses a guide for himself. It is of course an indispensable condition that he choose as a guide a man who knows, or else all meaning of choice is lost. Who can tell where a guide who does not know may lead a man? Every seeker dreams of a guide who knows, dreams about him but seldom asks himself objectively and sincerely—is he worthy of being guided? Is he ready to follow the way?

Views from the Real World p.57

a genuine representative of science

Look out, you scum, or I'll crush you like cockroaches. Don't you see who's coming? Not just anybody, but a genuine representative of science who has assimilated all the knowledge offered today by the highest seats of learning!

Beelzebubs Tales to his Grandson - 
The sixth and last sojourn of Beelzebub on the planet Earth (Chapter 31)