“A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information…The key is the teacher.” — 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
“Not to be greedy is, paradoxically, the highest form of looking after one's true interests.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Aprender a aprender: Decir "sí" a la vía sufi es decir "no" a las fugas imaginadas.” — 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 Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufis are unanimous that a Guide (Sheikh) is absolutely essential, though never available on demand: 'the Sufis are not merchants'.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Many a “learned” man is destroyed by ignorance and by the learning which is of no use to him’ (Hadrat Ahmed ibn… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Show a man too many camels' bones,or show them to him too often,and he will not be able to recognize a camel… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike,… — 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
“Careful preparation is necessary before people can perceive something which is there all the time.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“That which is given free is never knowledge. It may be information…but knowledge does not come in that manner.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you are 'humble', it may help you in ordinary life. If you are not, you will get nowhere in higher things.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism," according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Si eres "humilde", puede ayudarte en tu vida ordinaria. Si no lo eres, no irás a ningún lado respecto a las cosas… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“With enough information, it is almost impossible "not" to predict people's action.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“No hay sabiduría donde no hay sentido común: en tales condiciones ella no podrá encontrar ninguna expresión.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The Sufi is One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to go, and you do… — 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
