“As the Eastern saying, by the sage Hilali, has it, 'one person who understands is worth a hundred who merely obey a… — 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
“The real generosity is when a man does something generous when nobody knows about it.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The question of divine knowledge is so deep that it is really known only to those who have it.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism," according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis hold that the superior experience and knowledge comes to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth,capacity,and earning of… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Superior experience and knowledge will be made available to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth, capacity and earning… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“People think that they think things, and they also think that they know things. They could usefully give some attention to the… — 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
“All approaches to a study or an individual may start with a desire for attention. However they start, they must never end… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is… — 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
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
“The Book of Wisdom. Simab said: 'I shall sell the Book of Wisdom for a hundred gold pieces, and some people will… — 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
“When you observe that today's controversies often reveal not relevance but the clash of the untaught with the wrongly taught, and when… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Knowledge of yourself may involve, if we are learning at the present time, a knowledge of the way of thinking of your… — 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
When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world,… — 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
“Contrary to Expectation. A wise man, the wonder of his age, taught his disciples from a seemingly inexhaustible store of wisdom. He… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Instant Reading. A certain famous Fakir was claiming in the village that he could teach an illiterate person to read by a… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Whoever gives knowledge to a fool loses it And who keeps it from the deserving does wrong.” — 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
“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
“Careful preparation is necessary before people can perceive something which is there all the time.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Remember the proverb: 'A sign is enough for the alert, but a thousand counsels are not enough for the negligent.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“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
“Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Our heads are filled with ‘knowledge’, a knowledge that in some areas pre-empts our seeing anything at all.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Talent is the presence of ability and absence of understanding about the source and operation of knowledge.” — 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
