Idries Shah Quotes

If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.

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

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.

The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.

People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them.

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

Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.

Like 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

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

Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

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

The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.

He that is purified by love is pure; and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is a Sufi.Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah.

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

Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

No practice exists in isolation.

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

The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'.

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.

When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it.

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.

A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.

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

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.

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

Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.

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

Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal. Interesting people can find something interesting in all things.

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

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

Enemies are often former or potential friends who have been denied - or think that they have been denied - something.

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

When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.

The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.

To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.

The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.