Joseph Wood Krutch Quotes

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall - that of our consciousness - between the world and ourselves.

We talk of communing with Nature, but 'tis with ourselves we commune... Nature furnishes the conditions - the solitude - and the soul furnishes the entertainment.

To successfully open the door to heightened awareness, we must open it inward.

The only mistake that we can make as human beings is to be asleep, unaware of ourselves.

Life is the constant opportunity to wake up.

The soul is dyed with the color of its leisure thoughts.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

What a liberation to realize that the 'voice in my head' is not who I am. 'Who am I, then?' The one who sees that.

When we cultivate mystical awareness or transcendent identity - which is a natural outgrowth of meditation and other practices - what happens is that we begin to take a witness position on our own lives, and that includes our minds.

Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.

Often, psychological laziness will have you switch your life over to autopilot and fall asleep at the wheel rather than stay awake to what will fulfill your heart's deepest desires and your soul's purpose.

With devotion at the center of your awareness, you don't have to refer to your past in order to make a choice of how to respond or react in any given situation.

Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

I don't talk about consciousness. I talk about interiority.

Psychoanalysis - and any good therapy - is a method of increasing one's awareness of destiny in order to increase one's experience of freedom.

Consciousness... does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as 'chain' or 'train' do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A 'river' or a 'stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life. Source of the expression 'stream of consciousness'.

Direct the glance of apprehension & inquiry to pure consciousness, in its own absolute Being.

Look at the world as a reflection of your inner state.

The quality of one's life depends on the quality of attention. Whatever you pay attention to will grow more important in your life. There is no limit to the kinds of changes that awareness can produce.