Idries Shah Quotes
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The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.
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The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: 'What do you think I am, stupid, or something?
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
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Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.
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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.
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You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.
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From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.
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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 upon dogma and ritual: and especially upon repetition and the application of continual and standardised pressures upon their followers.The Sufi way, except in degenerate forms which are not to be classified as Sufic, is entirely different from this.
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Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.
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Meditation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.
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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 each gain is the goal itself will freeze at any such stage, and cannot learn through successive and superseding lessons.
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If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.
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People who speak or act in an ordinary fashion are most likely to be those who have been the recipients of higher experiences. But because they do not rage around, wild-eyed, people think that they are very ordinary folk and therefore not aware of anything unknown to the general run of man.
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But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.
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If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
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It is not enough that there is a collection of people with the common aim of working in unison towards an objective... Aspiration and desire only are not enough.
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The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.
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A real secret is something which only one person knows.
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If you want to make an ordinary man happy, or think that he is happy, give him money, power, flattery, gifts, honours. If you want to make a wise man happy - improve yourself!
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The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
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Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
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Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.
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Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.