Quotes from Idries Shah

Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience it and you will know'.

If you want to be a calligrapher, write, and write, and write.

Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction.

The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds

Water shrinks wool, urgency shrinks time. Shrinkage may be an advantage or the reverse, according to expectation.

Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.

It is not always a question of the Emperor having no clothes on. Sometimes it is, 'Is that an Emperor at all?

Wisdom Sufian said: 'The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for that has itself to be sustained.

The Sufi teacher's mission is to be in the service of those who can learn.

The answer to a fool is silence. (Proverb)

Muchas cosas que son llamadas "secretos" son únicamente cosas que les son negadas a la gente hasta que puedan comprenderlas o efectivamente vivenciarlas.

Learn about hornets from those who have been stung by them.

The intellect is not sovereign: knowledge is.

Saying of the Prophet Tasks Whoever makes all his tasks one task, God will help him in his other concerns.

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza Patience: A support for the disappointed.

Saying of the Mulla Nasrudin. If I survive this life without dying, I'll be surprised.

Se puede dar o rehusar de una manera mucho más efectiva, elaborada, útil, por completo invisible para las personas que piensan que dar o rehusar es un hecho producto de evaluación externa. Si buscas algún indicio de favor o "promoción", debes saber que no estás listo. El progreso llega a través de la capacidad de aprender, y es irresistible. Nadie puede interponerse entre tú y el conocimiento, si eres apto para éste.

No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk.

The would-be students wish to transcend books. But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he writes books; books do not contain Sufism, and yet he continues to publish books on Sufism, what is really happening? It really is your duty, and not mine, to ask and to find the answer to that question, if you are interested enough.

As swords were designed to kill They did well to make them tongue-shaped. (Anwar-i-Suhaili)

No colour comes after black.

When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.

You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel. (Gulistan)

Too much kindness towards the fox may mean doom for the rabbit.