Best Idries Shah Quotes
- One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that giving or withholding… Assessment
- You are still adrift while you still think that a means is an end. Adrift
- If the path has been laid down, why the successive appearance of different teachers? Why would anyone reinvent the wheel, if everything were as cosy… Anyone
- When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it. Admiration
- But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps. Able
- Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening. Best
- Mediation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be. Learn
- Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them. Called
- Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important -… All
- There is a Persian proverb: 'To test that which has been tested is ignorance.' To try to test something without the means of testing is… Been
- There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People who think that… According
- The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike, and which depend… Accustomed
- The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'. Been
- The more wakeful a man is to the things which surround him, the more asleep is he, and his waking is worse than his sleep. Asleep
- Talking about straws and camels' backs is just one way of approaching things. If you have enough camels, no backs need be broken. Approaching
- We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science that… Accordance
- Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm. Come Little
- One of the tragedies of modern times is that people have come to believe that something said by someone in the past, perhaps for illustrative… Actually Represents
- MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you Flatter
- It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis. Important
- The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete. Believe
- When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters. Become Less
- A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence; I do not know. What I do know is that he has a perfectly… Absence
- The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. Intellect
- The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. Day