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Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the veils which have to be dissolved in the mind.

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
Veils
Gained
Knowledge
Mind
Time
Dissolved

More quotes by Idries Shah

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The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.
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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.
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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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Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?
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When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
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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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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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Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.
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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.
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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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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.
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Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
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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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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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Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.
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History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
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The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
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Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.
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Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.
Idries Shah
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
Idries Shah