Idries Shah Quotes - Page 2

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

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

Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.

Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.

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

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.

Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.

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.

Meditation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.

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.

Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you - but: what did you learn?

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

A motto of the human race: Let me do what I like, and give me approval as well.

A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.

You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.

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

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

When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut?

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.

History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.

It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.

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?

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