Idries Shah Quotes
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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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When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.
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Meditation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.
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Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise.
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The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
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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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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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Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.
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... when we are talking about 'Christians' and 'Moslems' we must first make sure that we are talking about people who have an idea, which should be more or less correct, as to what the other is supposed to believe and what he is expected to do as a consequence of that belief.
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The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'.
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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 Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.
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Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.
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The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain.
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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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A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
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The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.
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Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
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Enemies are often former or potential friends who have been denied - or think that they have been denied - something.
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Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.
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When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.
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Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.
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Talking about straws and camels' backs is just one way of approaching things. If you have enough camels, no backs need be broken.
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If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.