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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
Way
Happenings
Happening
Stop
Force
Best
Trying
Something

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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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Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
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The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
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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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People today are in danger of drowning in information but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be. If they could handle information, they would not have to drown at all.
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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.
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The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
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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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Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
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One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
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When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.
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Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?
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The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
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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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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
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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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To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
Idries Shah
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When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.
Idries Shah
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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.
Idries Shah