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.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Idries Shah

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.

Idries Shah

People think that they think things, and they also think that they know things. They could usefully give some attention to the question of whether they know what they think and know what they think they know.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it - especially if you have eyes.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

Someday, the people we know, are acquainted to become the people we knew. They leave. They leave to pursue the opportunities laid down in their paths and they leave on account of misunderstandings. Their absence causes a vacuum, a space, an incomplet...

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

Who is the wrong person to criticise? You

Idries Shah

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.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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?

Idries Shah

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.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

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 an...

Idries Shah

None should say: ‘I can trust,’ or ‘I cannot trust’ until he is master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.

Idries Shah

Author Bio

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