Top quotes by Idries Shah

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. Votes: 11

We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science that can exert a beneficial influence on individuals and societies, in accordance with the needs of those individuals and societies ... Sufi study and development gives one capacities one did not have before. Votes: 10

Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm. Votes: 9

When the lion had eaten its fill, and the jackals had taken their share, the ants came along and finished up the meat from the bones of the haughty stag. Votes: 9

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning. Votes: 9

Mediation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be. Votes: 9

You must improve yourself on a higher level if you are to be able to help people, and not just weep over them. Votes: 9

A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything. Votes: 8

It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed. Votes: 8

If you do not understand, you cannot love. You can only imagine that you love. Votes: 8

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. Votes: 7

The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service Votes: 7

Teach honesty by all means - you do know what it is, don't you? Votes: 7

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps. Votes: 6

A man is deficient in understanding until he perceives that there is a whole cycle of evolution possible within himself: repeating endlessly, offering opportunities for personal development. Votes: 5

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaA fool: A man trying to be honest with the dishonest. Votes: 5

If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him. Votes: 4

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaTruthful man:He who is, secretly, regarded by everyone as an enemy. Votes: 4

Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words. Votes: 4

It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares. Votes: 3

A donkey eats a melon, it remains a donkey Votes: 3

A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it. Votes: 2

None should say: 'I can trust' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting. Votes: 2

ANDAKI: EFFORT IS NOT EFFORT WITHOUT ZAMAN, MAKAN, IKHWAN (RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT PEOPLE). Votes: 2

To bind one free man with love is better than to release a thousand slaves. Votes: 2

It is not 'Have I got a chance?' It is more often: 'Have I seen my chance? Votes: 1

No duty is ignoble. What can be ignoble is the sight of people trying not to be ignoble. Votes: 1

The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of all." Ibn Arabi. Votes: 1

Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore. Votes: 1

An old fool is worse than a young one: For the young may always grow wise. (Zohair) Votes: 1

You may have forgotten the Way: But those who came beforeDid not forget you.Saying of Master Bahaudin Naqshband of Bokhara Votes: 0

Opportunity's precious, and time is a sword. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaDrugs: Source of the mystical experience of the ignorant. Votes: 0

Learn about hornets from those who have been stung by them. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetUnderstandingSpeak to everyone in accordance with his degree of understanding. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetStruggleThe holy warrior is he who struggles with himself. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetInk and BloodThe ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetEnvyEnvy devours good deeds, as a fire devours fuel. Votes: 0

Patience is a garment which has never worn out. Votes: 0

People who cannot trust are themselves not trustworthy, and therefore cannot be entrusted with important things. Votes: 0

Question 3: Why should a person study Sufism?Answer: Because he was created to study it; it is his next step. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetHumilityHumility and courtesy are themselves a part of piety. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetSleepSleep is the brother of death. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetDeathDie before your death. Votes: 0

In the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished. Votes: 0

What you are seeking in your retreat, I see clearly in every road and alleyway. Votes: 0

DeathIf he is a good man, death will be a release;If he is a bad one, it will release others from him. Votes: 0

Patience is the food of understanding. Votes: 0

A Sufi is alive to the value of time, and is given, every moment, to what that moment demands. Votes: 0

Make mankind your dwelling place. Votes: 0

They have fixed our nutrition and arranged our life-span. More than this, and ahead of this, efforts will not be productive. Votes: 0

But the world itself, as well as special attitudes, properly understood, constitute the Sufi school. Votes: 0

What you have to learn is how to find the unworldly in everything. Votes: 0

Trying to force something is the best way to stop it from happening. Votes: 0

if... says: 'Do not be greedy, be generous', you may inwardly interpret this in such a manner that you will develop a greed for generosity Votes: 0

Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. Votes: 0

Remember that greed includes greed for being not greedy. Votes: 0

HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being obsessed by learning. Votes: 0

But the Sufis work IN the world, and therefore WITH 'things of the world'. Votes: 0

it was being written in the East that 'Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality'. Votes: 0

Sufis are not here to satisfy a demand. They exist to share what they have got. These two things are not always the same. Votes: 0

When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form. Votes: 0

Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'. Votes: 0

One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one. Votes: 0

...most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same. Votes: 0

Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed. They attract you because... they appeal to your greed. Votes: 0

The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before you were'. Votes: 0

There is a saying that, according to what a person's mentality is, even an angel may seem to him to have a devil's face. Votes: 0

You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person. Votes: 0

...action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher. Votes: 0

They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom. Votes: 0

When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all. Votes: 0

There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance. Votes: 0

Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it? Votes: 0

It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn. Votes: 0

The person that you feel yourself to be, according to the Sufis, is a false person, which has no true reality. Votes: 0

The Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not. Votes: 0

Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word. Votes: 0

Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study. Votes: 0

Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity. Votes: 0

The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'. Votes: 0

The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds Votes: 0

If you are 'humble', it may help you in ordinary life. If you are not, you will get nowhere in higher things. Votes: 0

The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning. Votes: 0

Words have to die if humans are to live. Votes: 0

If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed. Votes: 0

Do not try to be humble: learn humility. Votes: 0

To copy a virtue in another is more copying than it is virtue. Try to learn what that virtue is based upon. Votes: 0

Not to be greedy is, paradoxically, the highest form of looking after one's true interests. Votes: 0

No practice exists in isolation. Votes: 0

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed. Votes: 0

Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct. Votes: 0

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for. Votes: 0

If you cannot laugh frequently and genuinely, you have no soul. Votes: 0

If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a real teacher. Votes: 0

Sufis hold that the superior experience and knowledge comes to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth,capacity,and earning of it. Votes: 0

Sufism is transmitted by means of the human exemplar, the teacher. Votes: 0

Worry is a cloud which rains destruction. Votes: 0

Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age. Votes: 0

There is no wisdom where there is no common sense: it cannot under those conditions find any expression. Votes: 0

Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being. Votes: 0

You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the contact or the subject of the transaction) than you can in years of formal effort. Votes: 0

Sufism is experiential. Capacities, even those for learning beyond a certain point, are provoked by Sufis, by one's own efforts and what results from them, and by an element of what is referred to by Sufis as the Divine. Votes: 0

There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People who think that each gain is the goal itself will freeze at any such stage, and cannot learn through successive and superseding lessons. Votes: 0

Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise. Votes: 0

The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetObligation to LearnThe pursuit of knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetTHE PEOPLEIt is the people who are God's family.(Muhammad the Prophet) Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetTruthSpeaking the truth to the unjust is the best of holy wars. Votes: 0

Saying of the Prophet.Lies, promises, trustHe is not of mine who lies, breaks a promise or fails in his trust. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetSome behaviourI am like a man who has lighted a fire, and all the creeping things have rushed to burn themselves in it. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetHelping othersI order you to assist any oppressed person, whether he is a Muslim or not. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetMonkishnessNo monkery in Islam. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetThe BequestI have nothing to leave you except my family. Votes: 0

Teaching:One hour's teaching is better than a whole night of prayer.Saying of the Prophet Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetThe TongueA man slips with his tongue more than with his feet. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetThe JudgeA man appointed to be a judge has been killed without a knife. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetFoodNobody has eaten better food than that won by his own labour. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetPracticeWho are the learned? Those who put into practice what they know. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetDesireDesire not the world, and God will love you. Desire not what others have, and they will love you. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetAngerYou ask for a piece of advice. I tell you: 'Do not get angry.' He is strong who can withhold anger. Votes: 0

Helping othersI order you to assist any oppressed person, whether he is a Moslem or not. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetTasksWhoever makes all his tasks one task, God will help him in his other concerns. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetAccusationsAnyone reviling a brother for a sin will not himself die before committing it. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetOppressionWhen oppression exists, even the bird dies in its nest. Votes: 0

TeachingOne hour's teaching is better than a whole night of prayer. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetWomenWomen are the twin-halves of men. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetDistributionGod it is who gives: I am only a distributor. Votes: 0

Day and NightThe night is long: do not shorten it by sleep. The day is fair: do not darken it with wrongdoing. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetLoveDo you think you love your Creator? Love your fellow-creature first. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetReflectionThe Faithful are mirrors, one to the other. Votes: 0

Saying of the ProphetObjectsIt is your attachment to objects which make you blind and deaf. Votes: 0

An egocentric pessimist is a person who thinks he hasn't changed, but that other people are behaving worse than before. Votes: 0

Because there is a word for perfection, people will always imagine that they know it. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaAdherent:Someone who will believe anything except what he should. Votes: 0

Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble. Votes: 0

History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant. Votes: 0

Forms have changed through the centuries in obedience to the external world to which all forms belong. Votes: 0

The means through which people may perceive Truth have forms; Truth has no form. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPenitent: Someone who has been made incapable of enjoying himself. Votes: 0

You make me a sinner if you stop me giving you hospitality. Votes: 0

Three things cannot be retrieved:The arrow once sped from the bowThe word spoken in hasteThe missed opportunity. Ali, the Lion of Islam. Votes: 0

From a personal experience and the examination of literature, I feel that we cannot take for granted that a dialogue, without information and perhaps without understanding, is possible between any individuals or groups on all levels. So the prerequisite is information. Votes: 0

The important place held by Jesus among the world's six hundred million Moslems... and the agreement of both religions about the necessity for surrender to God as the means of salvation, thus makes it comparatively easy for a Moslem to address himself to Christians: the sympathy and the history are already there. Votes: 0

Treat this world as I do, like a wayfarer; like a horseman who stops in the shade of a tree for a time, and then moves on. Votes: 0

These lecture provide material for the consideration of common factors, in theory and in development, from the viewpoint of the idea of surrender to the Divine Will, reviewing some aspects of the interplay between Christians and Moslems, and introducing material from and about Sufis. Votes: 0

I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages. Rabia Votes: 0

When the human being says:'It is not true...'He may mean:'I don't know about it, so I think it is untrue.'Or:'I don't like it. Votes: 0

You can keep going on much less attention than you crave. Votes: 0

I have heard all that you have had to say to me on your problems.You ask me what to do about them.It is my view that your real problem is that you are a member of the human race.Face that one first. Votes: 0

Sufism is, in fact, not a mystical system, not a religion, but a body of knowledge. Votes: 0

Angels are the powers hidden in the faculties and organs of man Votes: 0

When there is a true or useful thing, there is sure to be a counterfeit. Votes: 0

A real secret is something which only one person knows. Votes: 0

The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: 'What do you think I am, stupid, or something? Votes: 0

Be a dog, but don't be a younger brother.Proverb. Votes: 0

There is something in man which can detect real love. We rub it out, or muffle it, by substitute-love. Votes: 0

Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He's after food, and death is after him.(Saadi) Votes: 0

A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work Votes: 0

The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed. Votes: 0

Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPatience: A support for the disappointed. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPoverty: The result of marriage. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaSupporter: Someone who will say anything. Votes: 0

Hit your hand on a stone and expect it to hurt. Votes: 0

The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured Votes: 0

Life: sometimes the man on the saddle, sometimes the saddle on the man. Votes: 0

Do not think that your magic ring will work if you are not yourself Solomon. Votes: 0

Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context. Votes: 0

The tongue is the best masseur of furrowed brows. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaWisdom: Something you can learn without knowing it. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaBribe Substitute for law, which is a substitute for justice. Votes: 0

The Sufi must be able to alternate his thought between the relative and the Absolute, the approximate and the Real. Votes: 0

He discards a quilt for fear of bugs. Votes: 0

RemedyYour medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.Hazrat Ali Votes: 0

For every Pharoah there is a Moses. Votes: 0

When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge Votes: 0

When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge. Votes: 0

You say that this society will come to an end, because societies always have done so. I wonder whether they have ended because they were not really societies at all. Votes: 0

From the beginning, from the age of Adam to the time of kingship: from the powerful, pardon: from the poor, sins. Votes: 0

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit. Votes: 0

EXPECTATION If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting. Votes: 0

The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire. Votes: 0

In the distorting mirror of your mind, an angel can seem to have a devil's face. Votes: 0

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. Votes: 0

Remember the proverb: 'A sign is enough for the alert, but a thousand counsels are not enough for the negligent. Votes: 0

Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full. Votes: 0

The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose. Votes: 0

The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza. Worry: Something to make you unnecessarily ill. Votes: 0

Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed. Votes: 0

In a village where everyone has only one leg, the biped will hop about more lamely than anyone else, if he knows what is good for him. Votes: 0

A Sufi school comes into being in order to flourish and disappear, not to leave traces in mechanical ritual, or anthropologically survivals. Votes: 0

among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn Votes: 0

Disappointment cannot exist without expectation. The expected apricot is never as sweet when it reaches the mouth. Votes: 0

You fear tomorrow: yet yesterday is just as dangerous. Votes: 0

Show a man too many camels' bones,or show them to him too often,and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he comes across a live one. Votes: 0

The process of learning is the process of discovering what really exists. Votes: 0

How many friends would you have if you went from one to another asking them to conceal a dead body? Votes: 0

Patience is bitter, but bears a sweet fruit. Votes: 0

When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters. Votes: 0

Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?'. Votes: 0

Sufism, they say, is that which enables one to understand religion, irrespective of its current outward form. Votes: 0

When the mind is full of established biases, it will not be able to graft Sufism on top of them. Votes: 0

The happiness of the superficial: when a man who has lost his donkey finds it again. Votes: 0

Show a man too many camels' bones, or show them to him too often, and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he comes across a live one. (Mirza Ahsan of Tabriz) Votes: 0

The liar has a bad memory. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaEmotionalist:A man or woman who thinks he has experienced the divine. Votes: 0

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaCommunity: Irrationals unified by hope of the impossible. Votes: 0

Haste is from the Devil. Votes: 0

Nothing cheap without reason. Votes: 0

Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand. Votes: 0

The definition of the word 'finished' is: 'This word means finished. Votes: 0

I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages. Votes: 0

Information about the activities of one body of Sufis may be harmful to the potential of another. Votes: 0

Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it. Votes: 0

Is your division of Understanding into Greater and Lesser common to all Sufis? Nothing which is put into words is common to all Sufis. Votes: 0

The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces. Votes: 0

Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew. Votes: 0

If you assume that it is there, you will generally not be far off the truth. Votes: 0

If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion. Votes: 0

Man thinks many things. He thinks he is One. He is usually several. Until he becomes One, he cannot have a fair idea of what he is at all. Votes: 0

When sense has left a head, it should be called a tail. Votes: 0

BARQI: AESTHETICS IS ONLY THE LOWEST FORM OF PERCEPTION OF THE REAL. Votes: 0

If the father cannot, the son will finish the task. Votes: 0

If you want to be a calligrapher, write, and write, and write. Votes: 0

Words, they say, are the food of minds. But, like other foods, they can do little by themselves. Votes: 0

A Sufi has a right to be served, but he has no right to demand. Maruf Karkhi of Khorasan Votes: 0

No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk. Votes: 0

SENTENCES OF THE KHAJAGANGURGANI: The teacher and the taught together produce the teaching. Votes: 0

One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets... Votes: 0

The spirit is the mirror; the body is the rust.(Divan-i-Shamsi Tabriz) Votes: 0

A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information. Votes: 0

How many friends would you have if you went from one to another asking them to conceal a dead body~? Votes: 0

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts. Votes: 0

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. Votes: 0

None should say : 'I can trust,' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting. Votes: 0

Water shrinks wool, urgency shrinks time.Shrinkage may be an advantage or the reverse, according to expectation. Votes: 0

It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis. Votes: 0

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Christian scholars often say that Sufi theories are close to those of Christianity. Many Moslems maintain that they are essentially derived from Islam. The resemblance of many Sufi ideas to those of several religious and esoteric systems are sometimes taken as evidence of derivation. The Islamic interpretation is that religion is of one origin, differences being due to local or historical causes. Votes: 0

The Sufi is One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

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 Votes: 0

A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung to death by scorpions. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. Votes: 0

A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well. Votes: 0

Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind. Votes: 0

Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun? Votes: 0

You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean. Votes: 0

Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening. Votes: 0

When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut? Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain. Votes: 0

The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress. Votes: 0

Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information. Votes: 0

Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress. Votes: 0

Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history. Votes: 0

When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts. Votes: 0

To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend. Votes: 0

If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting. Votes: 0

Enemies are often former or potential friends who have been denied - or think that they have been denied - something. Votes: 0

MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you Votes: 0

From imperial, economic and ideological causes, many cultures are the inheritors, and hence the prisoners, of attitudes of scorn and disdain for other faiths "“ outlooks which are not ennobling to anyone. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment. Votes: 0

The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans. Votes: 0

The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike, and which depend upon dogma and ritual: and especially upon repetition and the application of continual and standardised pressures upon their followers.The Sufi way, except in degenerate forms which are not to be classified as Sufic, is entirely different from this. Votes: 0

Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them. Votes: 0

Talking about straws and camels' backs is just one way of approaching things. If you have enough camels, no backs need be broken. Votes: 0

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! Votes: 0

When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it. Votes: 0

A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence; I do not know. What I do know is that he has a perfectly delightful absence. Votes: 0

When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous. Votes: 0

When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge. Votes: 0

... when we are talking about 'Christians' and 'Moslems' we must first make sure that we are talking about people who have an idea, which should be more or less correct, as to what the other is supposed to believe and what he is expected to do as a consequence of that belief. Votes: 0

People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them. Votes: 0

The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love. Votes: 0

Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives. Votes: 0

When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it. Votes: 0

If the path has been laid down, why the successive appearance of different teachers? Why would anyone reinvent the wheel, if everything were as cosy and sequential as primitive longing so easily convinces us? Votes: 0

You are still adrift while you still think that a means is an end. Votes: 0

One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that giving or withholding is done by external assessment. If you seek some mark of favour or 'promotion', know that you are not ready for it. Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise. Votes: 0

People who speak or act in an ordinary fashion are most likely to be those who have been the recipients of higher experiences. But because they do not rage around, wild-eyed, people think that they are very ordinary folk and therefore not aware of anything unknown to the general run of man. Votes: 0

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour returned them, together with one extra one "“ a very tiny pot. 'What is this?' asked Nasrudin. 'According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,' said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbour's pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. 'Alas!' said Nasrudin, 'they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?'. Votes: 0

It is not enough that there is a collection of people with the common aim of working in unison towards an objective... Aspiration and desire only are not enough. Votes: 0

People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be. If they could handle information, they would not have to drown at all. Votes: 0