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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.

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
Many
Attachment
Even
Suffer
Good
Delight
Things
Pride
World
Taking
People
Pleasure
Religious
Materialism
Suffering
Includes

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Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.
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Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
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Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
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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.
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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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There is a Persian proverb: 'To test that which has been tested is ignorance.' To try to test something without the means of testing is even worse.
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If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.
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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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From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.
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You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.
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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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You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.
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The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.
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Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
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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.
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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?
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Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
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A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.
Idries Shah
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A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
Idries Shah