History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries ShahIf 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 ShahLike the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature
Idries Shah