Quotes from Idries Shah, Reflections

History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.

It is not 'Have I got a chance?' It is more often: 'Have I seen my chance?

Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic.

Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.

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

If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it - especially if you have eyes.

Because there is a word for perfection, people will always imagine that they know it.

Talent is the presence of ability and absence of understanding about the source and operation of knowledge.

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

Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.

The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.

Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you - but: what did you learn?

The existence of relative truth does not prove the non-existence of universal truth.

The lightning said to the oak tree: 'Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!

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

We are adjured not to burn the candle at both ends.But how many people have verified that physically possible?

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

Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.

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.

Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.

None should say: 'I can trust' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.

Two people can illustrate crudity to you.The first is the crude man, whom you see perceiving the diamond as a stone.The other is the refined man, who makes clear to you the crudity of the first one.

Presence and AbsenceA 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.

EXPECTATION If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.