“Any society which enjoins its members to adhere to both of these (politeness and truth) is a fraud.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Day and Night The night is long: do not shorten it by sleep. The day is fair: do not darken it with… — 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
“Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He's after food, and death is after him. (Saadi)” — 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
“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
“Se ha dicho que la "Humildad no es tanto una virtud como una necesidad a la hora de aprender".” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“el Sufi es “alguien que no se preocupa cuando le quitan algo, pero que no cesa de buscar lo que no tiene.” — 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
“All forms are limited. Some of the limitations are time, place, culture, language.” — 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
“The man who knows must discharge a function. The one who does not, cannot arrogate one to himself; he can only try… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Almost every day I am reminded of Saadi's reflection that there is no senseless tyranny like that of subordinates.” — 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
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed. They attract you because... they appeal to your greed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.” — 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
“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
“If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a… — 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
“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
The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning. — 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 means through which people may perceive Truth have forms; Truth has no form.” — 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
“Sufis are not here to satisfy a demand. They exist to share what they have got. These two things are not always… — 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
“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
“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
“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
“It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed.” — 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
