If a warrior is to succeed at anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls, but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over walls; they don’t demolish them.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
The spirit reveals itself to everyone with the same intensity and consistency, but only warriors are consistently attuned to such revelations.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. However, a path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy—it does not make a warrior work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey; as long as a man follows it, he is one with it.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Personal history must be constantly renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and their expectations.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Each stone, each bend cries welcome to him. He identifies with the mountains and the streams, he sees something of his own soul in the plants and the animals and the birds of the field.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
As a peaceful warrior, I would choose when, where and how I would behave. With that commitment, I began to live the life of a warrior.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
A warrior doesn’t know remorse for anything he has done, because to isolate one’s acts as being mean, or ugly, or evil is to place an unwarranted importance on the self.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
The spirit of a warrior is not geared to indulging and complaining, nor is it geared to winning or losing. The spirit of a warrior is geared only to struggle, and every struggle is a warrior’s last battle on earth. Thus the outcome matters very little to him. In his last battle on earth a warrior lets his spirit flow free and clear. And as he wages his battle, knowing that his intent is impeccable, a warrior laughs and laughs.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle. Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone. Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his. Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light. Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties. Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’ Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved. That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Warriors of the light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
A warrior must cultivate the feeling that he has everything needed for the extravagant journey that is his life. What counts for a warrior is being alive. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete. Therefore, one may say without being presumptuous that the experience of experiences is being alive.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior chooses a path with heart, any path with heart, and follows it; and then he rejoices and laughs. He knows because he sees that his life will be over altogether too soon. He sees that nothing is more important than anything else.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That’s the warrior’s way.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
For a warrior, to be inaccessible means that he touches the world around him sparingly. And above all, he deliberately avoids exhausting himself and others. He doesn’t use and squeeze people until they have shriveled to nothing, especially the people he loves.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
An average man is too concerned with liking people or with being liked himself. A warrior likes, that’s all. He likes whatever or whomever he wants, for the hell of it.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
The warrior of the light has a destiny to fulfill.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Rich people do not back away from problems, do not avoid problems, and do not complain about problems. Rich people are financial warriors.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior balances solitude and dependence.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
We talk to ourselves incessantly about our world. In fact we maintain our world with our internal talk. And whenever we finish talking to ourselves about ourselves and our world, the world is always as it should be. We renew it, we rekindle it with life, we uphold it with our internal talk. Not only that, but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die, because we keep on repeating the same internal talk over and over until the day we die. A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his internal talk.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That’s control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That’s abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: ‘Does this path have a heart?’
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn’t worry.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior never worries about his fear.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Then, accepting the help of God and of God’s signs, he allows his personal legend to guide him toward the tasks that life has reserved for him.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Only the idea of death makes a warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his death is stalking him and won’t give him time to cling to anything so he tries, without craving, all of everything.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
I was a warrior so my son could be a farmer so his son could be a poet.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, an arm’s length behind us. Death is the only wise adviser that a warrior has. Whenever he feels that everything is going wrong and he’s about to be annihilated, he can turn to his death and ask if that is so. His death will tell him that he is wrong, that nothing really matters outside its touch. His death will tell him, I haven’t touched you yet.’
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior must learn to make every act count, since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
On some nights, he has nowhere to sleep, on others he suffers from insomnia. “That’s just how it is,” thinks the warrior. “I was the one who chose to walk this path”.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he’s clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior’s indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
The moment that he begins to walk along it, the warrior of the light recognizes the path.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
If his spirit is distorted he should simply fix it—purge it, make it perfect—because there is no other task in our entire lives which is more worthwhile … To seek the perfection of the warrior’s spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
You haven’t yet opened your heart fully, to life, to each moment. The peaceful warrior’s way is not about invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability—to the world, to life, and to the Presence you felt. All along I’ve shown you by example that a warrior’s life is not about imagined perfection or victory; it is about love. Love is a warrior’s sword; wherever it cuts, it gives life, not death.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
There are lots of things a warrior can do at a certain time which he couldn’t do years before. Those things themselves did not change; what changed was his idea of himself.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A rule of thumb for a warrior is that he makes his decisions so carefully that nothing that may happen as a result of them can surprise him, much less drain his power.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Whenever a warrior decides to do something, he must go all the way, but he must take responsibility for what he does. No matter what he does, he must know first why he is doing it, and then he must proceed with his actions without having doubts or remorse about them.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior takes responsibility for his acts, for the most trivial of acts. An average man acts out his thoughts, and never takes responsibility for what he does.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior-hunter knows that his death is waiting, and the very act he is performing now may well be his last battle on earth. He calls it a battle because it is a struggle. Most people move from act to act without any struggle or thought. A warrior-hunter, on the contrary, assesses every act; and since he has intimate knowledge of his death, he proceeds judiciously, as if every act were his last battle. Only a fool would fail to notice advantage a warrior-hunter has over his fellow men. A warrior-hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It’s only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself. It’s pleasurable that way. It dulls the edge of his fright.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A warrior seeks to act rather than talk.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
He tries to show each person how much they are capable of achieving.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
A warrior thinks of death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
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