Idries Shah Quotes
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When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut?
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
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A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung to death by scorpions.
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When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
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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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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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To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them.
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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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It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.
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The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
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Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic.
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Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.
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He that is purified by love is pure; and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is a Sufi.Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah.
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Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.
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If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.
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A real secret is something which only one person knows.
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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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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 impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress.
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People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them.
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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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Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.
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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?