“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
“When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“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 are penniless you will have a thousand dreams. Get even a single piece of money, however, and you will have… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. — 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
“As swords were designed to kill They did well to make them tongue-shaped. (Anwar-i-Suhaili)” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“if... says: 'Do not be greedy, be generous', you may inwardly interpret this in such a manner that you will develop a… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“A loan is the scissors of friendship. A man's own tongue may cut his throat. The cage has no value without the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Remedy Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register… — 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
“Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.” — 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
He that is purified by love is pure; and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is… — 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
“The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Voice in the night A voice whispered to me last night: 'There is no such thing as a voice whispering in the… — 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
“You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.” — 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
“I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you want special illumination, look upon the human face: See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“SAYING OF SHEIKH ZIAUDIN: Self-justification is worse than the original offence.” — 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
