Quotes from Tahir Shah

Experience has taught me the power of trophies. You may have every knick-knack and useless contraption ever devised, but while they weigh you down, a simple trophy can go a long, long way.

I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas.

My journey to the land of the Shuar tribe had taught me the importance of practical gifts.

Two reeds drink from the same stream. One is hollow, the other is sugarcane. —MOROCCAN PROVERB

The last thing we wanted was for the Machiguenga to be sad again. Sadness appeared to bring out their violence.

I struggled to think pure thoughts, as Hector sucked out my psyche with his eyes.

Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles.

Back at the guest house I tried to acclimatise. A travel-worn adventurer had once told me that leaning with one's head dangling over the end of a bed was the best way to achieve this. It was while I was in this position, the blood rushing to my temples, that the door swung open.

I'm a fool, that I should simply trick the tourists like everyone else. after all, most of them will never come back. and what are tourists for but for tricking?

In any case, a little danger is a small price to pay for ridding a place of tourists.

I had learned years ago never to give original documents to anyone if I could help it.

The first few hours in the cell were quite stimulating. I'd never been in a prison cell before and was quite enjoying the experience.

When I am about to embark on a difficult journey, I comfort myself by reading the accounts of the great nineteenth-century travellers, men like Stanley, Burton, Speke, Burckhardt and Barth.

Morocco, the lack of safety was an energizing force, but at the same time it was a constant concern. I had seen more accidents than I could count: car wrecks with people half dead lying on the ground, building sites where workmen had tumbled from scaffolding, children maimed by fireworks on a Sunday afternoon. For the first time in my life I became completely alert. In the West, you can drift from day to day in the knowledge that the society will protect you and your children.

As far as Samson was concerned I was just another foreigner in pursuit of a lunatic quest.

I am all for curses and superstition, but there's a point at which they start getting in the way. That point had arrived.

Returning to a city that one has known and loved fills you with a delicious sense of warmth.

Much travel is needed before a raw man is ripened. Arab

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Don't waste your life following others! Be individual! Live your dreams!

the object of war was not to win battles or destroy the enemy, but to provide a field for the performance of heroic deeds, which were subsequently immortalized in poetry. For the early Arabs to fight honorably was more important than to win.   T

The Berbers believe that when people are born, they are born with a story inside them, locked in their heart. It looks after them, protects them." Dr. Mehdi flicked the hood of his jelaba down onto his neck and sipped his coffee. "Their task is to search for their

I can't believe there's a prison anywhere out here,' Blaine said, turning the engine off. 'It's the middle of nowhere.

That Morocco is not just another Arab country. It's a crossroads – between Africa and Europe, and between Arabia and what lies west, beyond the Atlantic. But...' Ghita said, her voice touched with an undertone of pride, 'beyond all else it's Berber.