The End of Self-Justification

We have to know about ourselves and what is hidden in us, and what possibilities have been prepared for us from Creation. In this Work, for instance, we have to know from self-observation that we are asleep and in what sense. We have also to know that we can awaken from sleep, and how to.

If you get to know through self-observation why you always justify yourself, and why you will not face the stark truth that you are wrong, you will know a lot about yourself. Begin by stopping self-justifying. Can you? This kind of knowledge—that is, self-knowledge—changes you. It is part of awakening.

Maurice Nicoll, "Commentary on Doing the Work" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 5, p. 1683)