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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

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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
Names
Powerful
Become
Referred
Enough
Numerous
Ignorant
Name
Wise
Special

More quotes by Idries Shah

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Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic.
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You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
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When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it.
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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
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Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.
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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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From imperial, economic and ideological causes, many cultures are the inheritors, and hence the prisoners, of attitudes of scorn and disdain for other faiths – outlooks which are not ennobling to anyone.
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One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
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Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the veils which have to be dissolved in the mind.
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Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise.
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The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.
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If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
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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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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.
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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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From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.
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Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.
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The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.
Idries Shah