Quote

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!

Idries Shah

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Idries Shah
Age: 72 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 16
Died: 1996
Died: November 23
Author
Collector Of Fairy Tales
Teacher
Writer
Simla
Arkon Daraul
Giving
Gifts
Make
Improve
Men
Ordinary
Think
Wise
Thinking
Happy
Money
Honours
Power
Flattery
Give
Honour

More quotes by Idries Shah

Image
He that is purified by love is pure and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is a Sufi.Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah.
Idries Shah
Image
Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
Idries Shah
Image
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.
Idries Shah
Image
The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.
Idries Shah
Image
When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it.
Idries Shah
Image
None should say: 'I can trust' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.
Idries Shah
Image
Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
Idries Shah
Image
Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.
Idries Shah
Image
Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.
Idries Shah
Image
The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
Idries Shah
Image
Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
Idries Shah
Image
Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
Idries Shah
Image
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Idries Shah
Image
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.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise.
Idries Shah
Image
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.
Idries Shah
Image
You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.
Idries Shah