“Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“if... says: 'Do not be greedy, be generous', you may inwardly interpret this in such a manner that you will develop a… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“...action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed. They attract you because... they appeal to your greed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism is experiential. Capacities, even those for learning beyond a certain point, are provoked by Sufis, by one's own efforts and what… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. As Prince Dara Shikoh says, in a Persian poem:… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Definition of a Sufi To learn, people must give up a great deal, and this includes ritual as something from which they… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The person that you feel yourself to be, according to the Sufis, is a false person, which has no true reality.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To copy a virtue in another is more copying than it is virtue. Try to learn what that virtue is based upon.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis are not here to satisfy a demand. They exist to share what they have got. These two things are not always… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Not to be greedy is, paradoxically, the highest form of looking after one's true interests.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Mediation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions; and not to try to avoid what is your lot.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right… — Idries Shah Copy Share
A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung… — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. — Idries Shah Copy Share
“You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel. (Gulistan)” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i + >why< +… — Idries Shah Copy Share
We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science… — Idries Shah Copy Share
