Quote

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.

Idries Shah

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Idries Shah
Age: 72 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 16
Died: 1996
Died: November 23
Author
Collector Of Fairy Tales
Teacher
Writer
Simla
Arkon Daraul
Absence
Presence
Wonderful
Certain
May
Persons
Person
Delightful
Perfectly

More quotes by Idries Shah

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The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain.
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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.
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
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But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.
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One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
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It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.
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Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
Idries Shah
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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.
Idries Shah
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Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.
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To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
Idries Shah
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If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
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To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them.
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When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.
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None should say: 'I can trust' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.
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A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
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Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.
Idries Shah
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Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Idries Shah
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Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
Idries Shah
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When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it.
Idries Shah
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When the lion had eaten its fill, and the jackals had taken their share, the ants came along and finished up the meat from the bones of the haughty stag.
Idries Shah