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The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.

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
Humans
Heart
Penetrate
Never
Talks
Inner
Listening
Learned
Persons
Person

More quotes by Idries Shah

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The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.
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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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History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
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The impatient man is his own enemy he slams the door on his own progress.
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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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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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The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
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Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
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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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When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'.
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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.
Idries Shah
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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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One of the tragedies of modern times is that people have come to believe that something said by someone in the past, perhaps for illustrative or provocation purposes, actually represents that person's beliefs at the time.
Idries Shah
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People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them.
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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.
Idries Shah
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The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge. No real knowledge is common.
Idries Shah
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The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.
Idries Shah
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If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.
Idries Shah
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Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.
Idries Shah
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The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries Shah