Quote

A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.

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
Deserve
Word
Doe
Anything
Believe
Lent
Men
Donkey
Preference
Believes

More quotes by Idries Shah

Image
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
Image
The impatient man is his own enemy he slams the door on his own progress.
Idries Shah
Image
Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
Idries Shah
Image
The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.
Idries Shah
Image
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
Image
When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
Idries Shah
Image
The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.
Idries Shah
Image
It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.
Idries Shah
Image
Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.
Idries Shah
Image
You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.
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
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the veils which have to be dissolved in the mind.
Idries Shah
Image
The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain.
Idries Shah
Image
Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.
Idries Shah
Image
The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
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
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Idries Shah