“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
“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
“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
“Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He's after food, and death is after him. (Saadi)” — 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
“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
“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
“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
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
“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
“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
The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The teacher works in accordance with the prospects of his students and the possibility of maintaining the community of Sufis.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Whoever might perfume a scorpion Will not thereby escape its sting. Bahaudin Naqshband” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience and… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut? — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Any society which enjoins its members to adhere to both of these (politeness and truth) is a fraud.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is your duty to do your best. It is not, however, your birth-right to prevail.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.” — 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
“Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds” — 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
“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
“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
“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
