Carlos Castaneda Quotes

For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.

By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.

I have never in my life walked with a harness. The weight of the tether, makes it feel like I'm dragging an anchor behind me.

In the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy as a prisoner's chains.

an albatross around my neck.

Our prejudices are like physical infirmities — we cannot do what they prevent us from doing.

Straight ahead you can't go very far.

You wear your honor like a suit of armor... You think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down and make it hard for you to move.

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast.

It's like an Alcatraz around my neck

Of what use were wings to a man fast bound in chains of iron?

Even when you are not playing you are holding me back.

The only problem is time.

A handicap is like trying to race and you have a ten pound weight stuck to your waist. That is a handicap.

They disallowed this and disallowed that, and now I can't even get my head above water!

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold onto the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own system of repression.

I never want to get stuck in the box.

Nothing is stopping me from doing anything. I haven't got a golden handcuff.

There can be many bars, wires that keep a person trapped. All of them don't have to have been created for the purpose of harming or caging the bird, but they still serve that function.

Anything that immobilizes you, gets in your way, or keeps you from your goals is all yours. You can throw it away anytime you choose.

You would run much slower if you were dragging something behind you, like a knapsack or a sheriff.

Wings are freedom only when they are wide open in flight. On one's back they are a heavy weight.

But one day, the things that make you free start to keep you down.

They dont want you to exercise.