Quote

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.

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
Really
Instrument
Instruments
Remain
Becomes
Belief
Learn
Lost

More quotes by Idries Shah

Image
Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
Image
A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
Idries Shah
Image
Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.
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
Image
Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
Idries Shah
Image
But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.
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
You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.
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
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries Shah
Image
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
Image
A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
Idries Shah
Image
Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.
Idries Shah