If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.
IS
Author
Idries Shah
/idries-shah-quotes-and-sayings
571
Quotes
25
Works
Author Summary
About Idries Shah on QuoteMust
Idries Shah currently has 571 indexed quotes and 25 linked works on QuoteMust. This page is the canonical destination for that author archive.
Works
Books and titles linked to this author
A Perfumed Scorpion
Aprender a aprender
Caravan of Dreams
Darkest England
Knowing How to Know: A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition
Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study
Observations
Reflections
Seeker After Truth
Special Illumination: The Sufi Use of Humor
Sufi Thought and Action
Tales of the Dervishes: Teaching Stories of the Sufi Masters over the Past Thousand Years
The Book of the Book
The Commanding Self
The Dermis Probe
The Elephant in the Dark
The Magic Monastery: Analogical and Action Philosophy of the Middle East and Central Asia
The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
The Sufis
The Way of the Sufi
The World of Nasrudin
The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
Thinkers of the East
Wisdom of the Idiots
Quotes
All quote cards for Idries Shah
Fettered feet in the presence of friends is better than living in a garden with strangers.
None should say : 'I can trust,' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.
The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.
SAYING OF SHEIKH ZIAUDIN:Self-justification is worse than the original offence.
It is not Sufism if it does not perform its function for you. A cloak is no longer a cloak if it does not keep a man warm.
Haste is from the Devil.
The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.
If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.
Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew.
One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...
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.
Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.
The Sufis are unanimous that a Guide (Sheikh) is absolutely essential, though never available on demand: 'the Sufis are not merchants'.
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?
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?
One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
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.