Knowledge Quotes by Idries Shah

“The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.”

— Idries Shah

“Our heads are filled with ‘knowledge’, a knowledge that in some areas pre-empts our seeing anything at all.”

— Idries Shah

“Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context.”

— Idries Shah

“Talent is the presence of ability and absence of understanding about the source and operation of knowledge.”

— Idries Shah

“Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible.”

— Idries Shah

“Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.”

— Idries Shah

“Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience and…

— Idries Shah

“When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge”

— Idries Shah

“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

“...action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher.”

— Idries Shah

The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is…

— Idries Shah

“HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being…

— Idries Shah

“Remedy Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register…

— Idries Shah

“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

“Superior experience and knowledge will be made available to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth, capacity and earning…

— Idries Shah

“People think that they think things, and they also think that they know things. They could usefully give some attention to the…

— Idries Shah

“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

“Knowledge of yourself may involve, if we are learning at the present time, a knowledge of the way of thinking of your…

— Idries Shah

“The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. As Prince Dara Shikoh says, in a Persian poem:…

— Idries Shah

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

“It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world,…

— Idries Shah

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines,…

— Idries Shah

“The Book of Wisdom. Simab said: 'I shall sell the Book of Wisdom for a hundred gold pieces, and some people will…

— Idries Shah

“Definition of a Sufi To learn, people must give up a great deal, and this includes ritual as something from which they…

— Idries Shah

“In the modern world we are in a paradoxical situation; because although in theory man knows that he can extend his attention…

— Idries Shah

“Contrary to Expectation. A wise man, the wonder of his age, taught his disciples from a seemingly inexhaustible store of wisdom. He…

— Idries Shah

“Instant Reading. A certain famous Fakir was claiming in the village that he could teach an illiterate person to read by a…

— Idries Shah

“I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.”

— Idries Shah

“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

“Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.”

— Idries Shah

“Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.”

— Idries Shah

Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.

— Idries Shah

“They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.”

— Idries Shah

“He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.”

— Idries Shah

When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.

— Idries Shah

“A loan is the scissors of friendship. A man's own tongue may cut his throat. The cage has no value without the…

— Idries Shah

“Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.”

— Idries Shah

“As the Eastern saying, by the sage Hilali, has it, 'one person who understands is worth a hundred who merely obey a…

— Idries Shah

“The question of divine knowledge is so deep that it is really known only to those who have it.”

— Idries Shah

“The real generosity is when a man does something generous when nobody knows about it.”

— Idries Shah