Idries Shah
Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm.
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.
One of the tragedies of modern times is that people have come to believe that something said by someone in the past, perhaps for illustrative or provocation purposes, actually represents that person's beliefs at the time.
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.Collection: Mind
Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.Collection: Use
Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.Collection: Trying
Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.Collection: People
The more wakeful a man is to the things which surround him, the more asleep is he, and his waking is worse than his sleep.Collection: Sleep
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.Collection: Practice
When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.Collection: People
From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.Collection: Thinking
When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.Collection: Differences
If you want to make an ordinary man happy, or think that he is happy, give him money, power, flattery, gifts, honours. If you want to make a wise man happy - improve yourself!Collection: Wise
Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.Collection: Rain
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.Collection: Age
Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.Collection: May
The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human serviceCollection: Path
The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.Collection: People
The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain.Collection: Wish
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.Collection: Real
To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.Collection: Two Sides
Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.Collection: Real
Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.Collection: Religious
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.Collection: Information
When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.Collection: Belief
Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.Collection: Men
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.Collection: Action
If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.Collection: Giving Up
Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal. Interesting people can find something interesting in all things.Collection: Thinking
When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.Collection: Thinking
If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.Collection: Hate
Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.Collection: Criticise
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?Collection: Book
Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.Collection: Men
Meditation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.Collection: Thinking
Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?Collection: Healing
A motto of the human race: Let me do what I like, and give me approval as well.Collection: Race
You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.Collection: Dirty
When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut?Collection: Doors
You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.Collection: Mean
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.Collection: Remember You
People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them.Collection: Play
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.Collection: Running
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.Collection: People
It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.Collection: Important
If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?Collection: Attitude
It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.Collection: Caring
From imperial, economic and ideological causes, many cultures are the inheritors, and hence the prisoners, of attitudes of scorn and disdain for other faiths – outlooks which are not ennobling to anyone.Collection: Attitude
A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.Collection: Mean