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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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Idries Shah
Age: 72 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 16
Died: 1996
Died: November 23
Author
Collector Of Fairy Tales
Teacher
Writer
Simla
Arkon Daraul
Called
Secret
Understand
Experience
Many
Things
Withheld
People
Effectively
Secrets
More quotes by Idries Shah
When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
Idries Shah
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
Idries Shah
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
When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'.
Idries Shah
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
The impatient man is his own enemy he slams the door on his own progress.
Idries Shah
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.
Idries Shah
The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
Idries Shah
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!
Idries Shah
If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?
Idries Shah
You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.
Idries Shah
Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
Idries Shah
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries Shah
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
Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.
Idries Shah
A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.
Idries Shah
The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
Idries Shah
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Idries Shah
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.
Idries Shah
One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
Idries Shah