Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is just as important… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
One of the tragedies of modern times is that people have come to believe that something said by someone in the past,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
An egocentric pessimist is a person who thinks he hasn't changed, but that other people are behaving worse than before. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
It is not enough that there is a collection of people with the common aim of working in unison towards an objective...… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more… — 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
... when we are talking about 'Christians' and 'Moslems' we must first make sure that we are talking about people who have… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
People who speak or act in an ordinary fashion are most likely to be those who have been the recipients of higher… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal. Interesting people can… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that… — 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
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant. — 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
