Idries Shah Quotes

79 Sourced Quotes

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 or provocation purposes, actually represents that person's beliefs at the time.

Idries Shah
If you give what can be taken, you are not really giving. Take what you are given, not what you want to be given. Give what cannot be taken.

Idries Shah
Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm.

Idries Shah
Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.

Idries Shah
Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.

Idries Shah
If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.

Idries Shah
The lecture which you are about to hear from Sheikh Rahimi lacks conviction. Why, he is so unsere of himself that he has actually adducted written proofs and authorities to what he says.

Idries Shah
Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.

Idries Shah
People who know nothing, or know very little and should be studying instead of teaching, are fond of creating an air of mystery.

Idries Shah
The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress.

Idries Shah
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 and sequential as primitive longing so easily convinces us?

Idries Shah
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.

Idries Shah
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.

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

Idries Shah
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.

Idries Shah
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.

Idries Shah
Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.

Idries Shah
If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?

Idries Shah
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 even worse.

Idries Shah
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.

Idries Shah