“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
“When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When the human being says: 'It is not true...' He may mean: 'I don't know about it, so I think it is… — 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
“I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages. Rabia” — 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
“Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.” — 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
“Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He's after food, and death is after him. (Saadi)” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed.” — 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
“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
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
