"Our relationship is eternal. But if somebody lags behind, so in spite of our eternal relationship one may not meet other at the destination. Just like a flock of birds — although very intimately related, everyone of them has to fly in the sky by individual strength. If one is less strong, the other cannot keep him in the sky. That is the law of nature. So long everyone of us is strong in Krishna Consciousness, there is no doubt, you can fly in the spiritual sky and meet together without failure. Therefore, individual strength is most important. And that individual strength is achieved in the association of devotees also. So you can make your own judgment." — Letter to: Satsvarupa, 20 September, 1968.

"A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps.
When a man has fulfilled those four requisites there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his acts lose the blundering quality of a fool's acts. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that."
— Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan.

"He is pure who expels fleshly love with divine love, and who has extinguished the material fire by the immaterial fire
Not he who has kept his clay undefiled is pure, but he whose members are completely subject to his soul."
— John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Step 15

"The offspring of flint and steel is fire; and the offspring of chatter and joking is lying.
A lie is the destruction of love, and perjury is a denial of God."
— John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Step 12

All problems start when the kirtan stops.

"Only a crackpot would undertake the task of becoming a man of knowledge of his own accord. A sober-headed man has to be tricked into doing it."

"I'm sure there must be scores of people who would gladly undertake the task," I said.

"Yes, but those don't count. They are usually cracked. They are like gourds that look fine from the outside and yet they would leak the minute you put pressure on them, the minute you filled them with water. "

"I had to trick you into learning once, the same way my benefactor tricked me. Otherwise you wouldn't have learned as much as you did. Perhaps it's time to trick you again."

Carlos Castaneda. A Separate Reality.