Quotes About Learning

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.

Show a man too many camels' bones,or show them to him too often,and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he comes across a live one.

Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.

Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.

If you will not reprove yourself,' Saadi says, 'you will not welcome reproof from another.

Why do people always wonder whether books are any good, without wondering whether they are themselves in a state to profit from them?

One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that giving or withholding is done by external assessment. If you seek some mark of favour or 'promotion', know that you are not ready for it. Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.

There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People who think that each gain is the goal itself will freeze at any such stage, and cannot learn through successive and superseding lessons.

It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.

You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the contact or the subject of the transaction) than you can in years of formal effort.

A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work. (Hafiz)

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.

Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life

Stages First I thought that a Teacher must be right in all things. Then I imagined that my teacher was wrong in many things. Then I realised what was right and what was wrong. What was wrong was to remain in either of the first two stages. What was right was to convey this to everyone. (Ardabili)

THE BIRD AND THE WATER A bird which has not heard of fresh water Dips his beak in salt-water year after year. (Anwar-i-Suhaili)

A solved problem is as useful to a man's mind as a broken sword on a battlefield.

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza Wisdom: Something you can learn without knowing it.

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

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.

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.

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.