“People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i +… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is a Sufi contention that truth is not discovered or maintained by the mere repetition of teachings. It can only be… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“There is no wisdom where there is no common sense: it cannot under those conditions find any expression.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Q: What is a fundamental mistake of man's? A: To think that he is alive, when he has merely fallen asleep in… — 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
“Learning how to learn involves examining assumptions. Mulla Nasrudin tales very often fulfil this funcition.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. — 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
“Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“A man is deficient in understanding until he perceives that there is a whole cycle of evolution possible within himself: repeating endlessly,… — 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
“Never follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.” — 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
“They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.” — 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
“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
“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
“Assume that you are part-hypocrite and part heedless, and you will not be far wrong.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it… — 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
