Quote

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

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
Desire
Good
Greed
Based

More quotes by 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
It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.
Idries Shah
Image
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Idries Shah
Image
The impatient man is his own enemy he slams the door on his own progress.
Idries Shah
Image
Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?
Idries Shah
Image
Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.
Idries Shah
Image
The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.
Idries Shah
Image
Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.
Idries Shah
Image
Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
Idries Shah
Image
The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries Shah
Image
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the veils which have to be dissolved in the mind.
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
The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.
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
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
A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
Idries Shah
Image
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
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
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
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