Idries Shah Quotes

“Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?”

“One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.”

“Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you - but: what did you learn?”

“You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.”

“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.”

“You have not forgotten to remember;
You have remembered to forget.
But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.”

“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.”

“Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.”

“Right time, right place, right people equals success.
Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.”

“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!”

“From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying:
'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.”

“Good. Show me a man who thinks that he knows what 'good' is, and I will probably be able to show you a horror of a person. Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.”

“Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm.”

“You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.”

“Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.”

“Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.”

“The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.”

“Knowledge is something which you can use.
Belief is something which uses you.”

“Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.”

“Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.”

“A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.”

“The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.”

“If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.”

“The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.”

“Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.”

“The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.”

“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.”

“It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.”

“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”