Quotes from Tahir Shah

Money spent on good-quality gear is always money well spent

The very fact that a Frenchman was prepared, after two minutes of conversation, to be so friendly towards anyone, especially one who had come from England, made me restless.

These days no one challenges us,' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy.

Visit Cape Town and history is never far from your grasp. It lingers in the air, a scent on the breezy, an explanation of circumstance that shaped the Rainbow People. Stroll around the old downtown and it's impossible not to be affected by the trials and tribulations of the struggle. But, in many ways, it is the sense of triumph in the face of such adversity that makes the experience all the more poignant.

On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.

The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

The idea of my heart dancing with delight was far too good to pass up.

It was an awkward moment. We were burning down our host's house, a situation which any guest seeks to avoid.

There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone.

An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems.

The quest for a lost city erodes your body, damaging you beyond all reason. But it is your mind that bears the heaviest toll. Listen to the doubters, the worriers and the weak, and the vaguest hope of success evaporates.

There are two ways to find a lost city. The first is to rely on luck alone, the second is to control all the information.

Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

Venture to a remote corner of a faraway land and, from the moment you get there, every person and every thing becomes an obstacle, designed to entrap you, to stop you proceeding on your way.

Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead.

Because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we all have become lazy. Lazy people are like cancer. They spread. Before you know it, the entire country is destroyed.

In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.

For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.

Enlightenment, and the death which comes before it, is the primary business of Varanasi.

In India an explanation is often more confusing than what prompted it.

Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.

Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.

A little imagination goes a long way in Fes.