Quotes from Idries Shah

If you give what can be taken, you are not really giving. Take what you are given, not what you want to be given. Give what cannot be taken.

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.

You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.

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

You yourself are your own barrier – rise from within it.

MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you

From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.

People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be. If they could handle information, they would not have to drown at all.

When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form.

A real secret is something which only one person knows.

Enemies are often former or potential friends who have been denied - or think that they have been denied - something.

Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.

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

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.

One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...

The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge. No real knowledge is common.

Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.

A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence; I do not know. What I do know is that he has a perfectly delightful absence.

They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.

To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.

Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.