Quotes by Idries Shah

About Idries Shah:

Idries Shah was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.
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One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.

Idries Shah

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'.

Idries Shah

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.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

Words have to die if humans are to live.

Idries Shah

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

Definition of a Sufi To learn, people must give up a great deal, and this includes ritual as something from which they imagine they might learn. It is to emphasise this that Abu-Yaqub al-Susi, quoted in Kalabadhi's Taaruf, states that the Sufi is 'On...

Idries Shah

Author Bio

  • NameIdries Shah
  • DescriptionWriter and Sufi teacher
  • BornJune 16, 1924
  • DiedNovember 23, 1996
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter