“Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Si no te reprochas a ti mismo”, dice Saadi, “no aceptarás el reproche ajeno.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The phenomenal is the channel to the Truth. Al mujazu qantarat al Haqiqa.” — 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
“He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you are penniless you will have a thousand dreams. Get even a single piece of money, however, and you will have… — 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
“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
“When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Remembering and Forgetting You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“These lecture provide material for the consideration of common factors, in theory and in development, from the viewpoint of the idea of… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The important place held by Jesus among the world's six hundred million Moslems... and the agreement of both religions about the necessity… — 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
From imperial, economic and ideological causes, many cultures are the inheritors, and hence the prisoners, of attitudes of scorn and disdain for… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sandals. The Sufi teacher Ghulam-Shah was asked what pattern he used in formulating his courses for disciples. He said: 'Barefoot until you… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“They asked Abboud of Omdurman: 'Which is better, to be young or to be old?' He said: 'To be old is to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The would-be students wish to transcend books. But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Ali, Son of the Father of the Seeker Ali said: 'None may arrive at the Truth until he is able to think… — 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
“In the modern world we are in a paradoxical situation; because although in theory man knows that he can extend his attention… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.” — 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
