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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.

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
Taught
Information
Today
Drown
Need
Drowning
Needs
Useful
Would
Handle
People
Danger
Willing

More quotes by Idries Shah

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Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
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If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.
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The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.
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People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them.
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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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Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.
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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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Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
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Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.
Idries Shah
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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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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
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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.
Idries Shah
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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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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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A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.
Idries Shah
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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.
Idries Shah
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When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.
Idries Shah
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
Idries Shah
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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.
Idries Shah