Quotes from Idries Shah

most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same.

Few things are more absurd than wise saws originally designed to inculcate or maintain the social needs of a society long past - when they are applied to today.

Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study.

The donkey which brought you to this door must be dismissed if you want to get through it'.

That which is given free is never knowledge. It may be information....but knowledge does not come in that manner.

The spirit is the mirror; the body is the rust. (Divan-i-Shamsi Tabriz)

among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn

Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble.

Saying of the Prophet Desire Desire not the world, and God will love you. Desire not what others have, and they will love you.

A loan is the scissors of friendship. A man's own tongue may cut his throat. The cage has no value without the bird.

Saying of the Prophet Truth Speaking the truth to the unjust is the best of holy wars.

Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise.

A Sufi is one who is not bound by anything nor does he bind anything

When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'.

Saying of the Prophet Obligation to Learn The pursuit of knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim.

Patience is a garment which has never worn out.

Saying of the Prophet. Ink and Blood: The ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr.

If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.

Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed.

A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.

You must improve yourself on a higher level if you are to be able to help people, and not just weep over them.

In the distorting mirror of your mind, an angel can seem to have a devil's face.

The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.

Teach honesty by all means - you do know what it is, don't you?