“A man has four natural enemies: fear, clarity, power, and old age. Fear, clarity and power can be overcome, but not old age. Its effect can be postponed, but it can never be overcome.”

— Carlos Castaneda , book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 31, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A man has four natural enemies: fear, clarity, power, and old age. Fear, clarity and power can be overcome, but not old…" by Carlos Castaneda?

Carlos Castaneda photo

Carlos Castaneda 98

Peruvian-American author 1925–1998

Related quotes

“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches. Use auto-suggestion, have faith, imagination and overcome fear and time is your opposite player as in checkerboard.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

As quoted in Self-Motivation Through Risk Taking! : Are You Leading Or Do You Wither with Problems? (2005) by M. Nadarajan Munisamy

“It is the moral factor which decides the fate of nations: man's spirit can prove greater than the power of leviathan. A nation is swiftly overcome if its spirit is weak; but with unyielding determination it can vanquish powers that appear to be utterly invincible.”

Gwynfor Evans (1912–2005) Welsh politician

Land of My Fathers, 1974. (Translation from Welsh original text)

“Everything is sad and ridiculous in old age. Even the fear of death.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999) Argentine novelist

"En la vejez todo es triste y ridículo: hasta el miedo a la muerte."
Diario de la Guerra del Cerdo, 1969.

“There is nothing as energizing, as confidence-building, as sustaining as the power of love. How substantial is its influence on the human mind and heart! How great and magnificent is its power in overcoming fear and doubt, worry and discouragement!”

Gordon B. Hinckley book Standing for Something

Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes, Times Books. . (2000).

“… a man can overcome his background, even as he can overcome a skilled opponent.”

David Gemmell book The King Beyond the Gate

Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 13

“In every age its [liberty's] progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

p, 125
The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)

“Wages have increased, the cost of living has decreased. The job of every man and woman has been made more secure. We have in this short period decreased the fear of poverty, the fear of unemployment, the fear of old age; and these fears that are the greatest calamities of human kind.”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover (1928), Campaign speech in New York (22 October 1928)

“The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.”

A.J.P. Taylor (1906–1990) Historian

An Old Man's Diary ([1981] 1984) p. 39

“Applied properly, it [logic] can overcome any lack of wisdom, which one only gains through age and experience.”

Christopher Paolini book Eldest

Oromis
Eldest (2005)

Related topics