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Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.

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
Happening
Stop
Force
Best
Trying
Something
Way
Happenings

More quotes by Idries Shah

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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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Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
Idries Shah
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Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
Idries Shah
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The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
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Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.
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The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.
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Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?
Idries Shah
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It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.
Idries Shah
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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.
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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One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
Idries Shah
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
Idries Shah
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The impatient man is his own enemy he slams the door on his own progress.
Idries Shah
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A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
Idries Shah
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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
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The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
Idries Shah
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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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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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Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.
Idries Shah
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You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.
Idries Shah