“You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.… — 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
“If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Service I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages. Rabia el-Adawia.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.” — 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… — 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
“Alguien dice que no le he enseñado nada que pueda recordar. Aún no puede comprender que eso es precisamente a lo que… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Q: How can I help myself? A: By remembering the proverb: ‘The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human… — 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
When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The existence of relative truth does not prove the non-existence of universal truth.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is necessary to note," says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi).” — 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
“The means through which people may perceive Truth have forms; Truth has no form.” — 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
“Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Aprender a aprender: Decir "sí" a la vía sufi es decir "no" a las fugas imaginadas.” — 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
“Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The people of the world have a fixed destiny. But the spiritually developed receive what is “not” in their destiny.” — 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
“Saying of the Mulla Nasrudin. If I survive this life without dying, I'll be surprised.” — 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
“Fettered feet in the presence of friends is better than living in a garden with strangers.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Has it not occurred to you that, conversely, other people do not have your difficulties because they do not react as you… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Mediation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Forms have changed through the centuries in obedience to the external world to which all forms belong.” — 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
“Whoever gives knowledge to a fool loses it And who keeps it from the deserving does wrong.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“No cuentes tus secretos a todo el mundo en esta sede central, Tierra. La hemos examinado bien. No había nadie a quien… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Servicio No serviré a Dios como un obrero a la espera de mi salario. Rabia el-Adawia.” — 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
“Se ha dicho que la "Humildad no es tanto una virtud como una necesidad a la hora de aprender".” — 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
“Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.” — 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
“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
