his presence was filled with an unusual majestic force

G. Gurdjieff appeared. But, he was no longer the same man. He was transformed. He emanated a great radiance, without his outer appearance being changed. His presence was filled with an unusual majestic force, which he had never shown us. He looked at us intently, as if passing us a message. What I felt from him made a very deep impression.

Then, G. Gurdjieff beckoned me to come closer. I went towards him, and G. told me of an exercise that I was to give to my companions at our next meeting:

"To think of him, Mme de S. and all the group members as a network, all connected to one another, even at a great distance."

I relayed the exercise that evening at a meeting in his flat in the Rue des Colonels Renard. This gave us a greater consciousness of our relationship with him and the group.

Solange Claustres - Becoming Conscious with Mr. Gurdjieff p.86

the future of the Fourth Way on Earth

One day G. Gurdjieff had said that the role of the Fourth Way, this teaching which is neither the way of the monk, nor the yogi, nor the fakir, is to appear and disappear, after having deposited what was necessary at this moment, in a certain epoch, in a certain place on the Earth. That this way could blend into society, change form, become an organisation, a religion, or disappear.

Another time G. had said that what had been created would disappear by the fourth generation.

Solange Claustres - Becoming Conscious with Mr. Gurdjieff

Gurdjieff is a multitude

"He is a multitude," Jane Heap had told us. "But if you watch, sometimes you sec the sage pass by."

We watched for the sage and yes, were fearful in case we missed the golden moment when he passed.

We were not so much afraid of Mr Gurdjieff himself as of ourselves, our weakness, our sleep.

A.L. Staveley - Memories of Gurdjieff p.51

Henry Miller´s quotes on Gurdjieff

To begin with, Gurdjieff was a thoroughly enigmatic figure. He was a living example of that Greek word, Enantiodromos, meaning the process by which a thing changes into its opposite. He could be tender, fierce, strict, indulgent, wise, clownish, utterly serious and a farceur all at one time.

Gurdjieff was a perpetual surprise. However, young as he was, and with no preparation for the ordeal, Fritz Peters, the boy, was astute enough to know that he was in the hands of a most unusual human being, a man who has been called a Master, a Guru, a Teacher, everything but a Saint.

Much has been written about the scandalous behavior of Gurdjieff. And it is true that he seemed to care little for conventional behavior. In a sense, he was like a cross between the Gnostics of old and the latter day Dadaists. Certainly, of him the Latin saying "nothing human is beneath me" was true. He was human to the core. At times he reached sublime heights.

It delivers over to us one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures of our time, one unfortunately too little known by present day man. I have read the book several times myself and each time with renewed interest. In a way of speaking I regard it as something on a par with Alice in Wonderland, a real treasure of our literature.

"Gurdjieff was one of the most mysterious figures of the twentieth century. His writing was incomprehensible to me, yet I feel I know him intimately because of a delectable book titled, Boyhood With Gurdjieff by Fritz Peters."

"Political leaders are never leaders. For leaders we have to look to the Awakeners! Lao Tse, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Milarepa, Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti."

Steal the Dog

Gurdjieff had appointed a prim, control-oriented woman. Miss Ethel Merston, as his administrator when he was away. On a trip, he and Miss Merston stopped at an inn where a large dog seemed to adopt Gurdjieff: he and the dog became instant friends. At their next stop, Gurdjieff asked Miss Merston if she would like to do something for him. All too eagerly, she said she would. Very well, Gurdjieff told her, that dog at the inn should belong to me. So go back to that inn and steal that dog.

Miss Merston was horrified. As Gurdjieff knew very well, this act of theft was utterly contrary to her nature. But he insisted - it must be done! Forcing herself every inch of the way, she returned alone to the inn. She immediately saw the dog wandering around, and - agonizing over it - she induced the animal to get into the ear. Then the innkeeper popped up. She was busted! She began to babble some explanation about how the dog had jumped in the car on its own but the innkeeper only expressed puzzlement that they’d left the dog behind in the first place - because the gentleman with her earlier had already bought the dog.

Gurdjieff had never really put her at risk of being arrested - but, quite harmlessly, he’d forced her to go against the grain of her programming and confront her greatest fears.

John Shirley - Gurdjieff. An Introduction to His Life and Ideas

Thomas de Hartmann talk from 1950

“He gave an imitation of how we wriggle and scratch after a movement stops — the devil always finds something for us — but we must remain quite still after a movement till one more note gives the signal to move. ‘This will make a big impression on your audience—and on you if you watch some day’.

‘I tell once for ever about beginning of the music of Georgi Ivanovitch. In 1917 M. and Mme Ouspensky and others did movements, but 1918 was the beginning of music. Georgi Ivanovitch lay on a sofa at Essen- tuki with a guitar — but he did not strike it the ordinary way - and gave the melodies. There was a violin, he told me, ‘In two days you must play it’, so I had to: and ‘a plate for putting glasses on’ as a drum.

Then in Tiflis we had a piano. Georgi Ivanovitch could do the impossible. In the midst of revolution he was working intensively on each one of us, our inner psychic states. It was a terrible piano. He said: ‘Any idiot can play on a good piano’, so I had to play on it. (See p 86).
When he wanted to make me angry, he gave the melodies each time a little different; he was training me. With these melodies there is only one right way to harmonize them, you have to ‘catch’ what they need. It is not ‘my music’, it is his. I have only picked up the Master’s handkerchief. Mme Salzmann remembers that time.

All the movements have their own scales. No. 19 is the five tone scale of Bali. The Chinese and Tibetan scale is different. Some have to be like “Little Bells’’ that hang in the temples.
The music and movements are one, they are like the body and soul in man, the rhythm is what joins them. You do not move in jerks on hearing the sound, like electric bells or lamps flicking up, but feel it beforehand. It is like a circle going round all the time, but as it passes a tangent touching a certain point, the actual movement comes” He drew a big circle in the air with his right arm, brushing the left hand each time it passed.

“Those who had the great happiness to live with Georgi Ivanovitch know that something was given them, more than they deserved. He was trying to hammer a soul into man, something that could survive. Perhaps he is present here in reality.”

Mr. de Hartmann’s talk at Colet Gardens on 9th March 1950.

Gurdjieff knew Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy - Beelzebub was on this planet until 1921. And he was struck with this, that Tolstoy, with no more knowledge than you and I, nevertheless got himself passed off as one of the writers of contemporary religion. He was, so Gurdjieff says, who knew him, a perfectly silly man.

Later on he gives an example of Tolstoy, though not naming him, who without any real knowledge of life or self became regarded as the author of a modern gospel. Gurdjieff knew Tolstoy, who was naive and self-ignorant. 

Why do people believe Tolstoy’s gospel? Because we never verify by applying personal knowledge and effort. Why not? It involves effort of self-knowledge and consequent estrangement.

Tolstoy’s stories are accepted as having spiritual value, they have only psychological.

A.R. Orage - Commentary on "Beelzebubs Tales to his grandson"