Idries Shah Quotes

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

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

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

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

The more wakeful a man is to the things which surround him, the more asleep is he, and his waking is worse than his sleep.

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

When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.

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

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!

The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service

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

Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge. No real knowledge is common.

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

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

The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain.

When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.

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.