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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.

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
Little
Freedom
People
Hope
Idea
Chains
Else
Obsessed
Form
Instance
Littles
Slavery
Able
Therefore
Ideas
Struggle

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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.
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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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A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
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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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Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.
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When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
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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, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
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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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Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.
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If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.
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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.
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Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.
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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!
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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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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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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.
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History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
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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.
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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