Tahir Shah Quotes

45 Sourced Quotes

Through bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.

Tahir Shah
The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

Tahir Shah
In India an explanation is often more confusing than what prompted it.

Tahir Shah
On a hard jungle journey nothing is so important as having a team you can trust.

Tahir Shah
The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.

Tahir Shah
To Succeed, you must reach for the stars, and let your imagination find its own path

Tahir Shah
My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.

Tahir Shah
A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.

Tahir Shah
Enlightenment, and the death which comes before it, is the primary business of Varanasi.

Tahir Shah
Close your senses and the imagination comes alive. It's inside us all, dulled by endless television reruns and by a society that reins in fantasy as something not to be trusted, something to be purged. But it's in there, deep inside, a spark waiting to set a touch-paper alight.

Tahir Shah
Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can't imagine life without them.

Tahir Shah
Stories are not like the real world; they aren't held back by what we know is false or true. What's important is how a story makes you feel inside.

Tahir Shah
I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand.

Tahir Shah
Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?

Tahir Shah
My father used to tell me that stories offer the listener a chance to escape but, more importantly, he said, they provide people with a chance to maximize their minds. Suspend ordinary constraints, allow the imagination to be freed, and we are charged with the capability of heighetned thought.
Learn to use your eyes as if they are your ears, he said, and you become connected with the ancient heritage of man, a dream world for the waking mind.

Tahir Shah