Quote

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

Tahir Shah

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tahir Shah
Age: 57
Born: 1966
Born: November 16
Author
Comedian
Explorer
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
North
Held
East
Importance
Impossible
Middle
Overemphasize
Almost
Ancestry
Africa

More quotes by Tahir Shah

Image
The very fact that a Frenchman was prepared, after two minutes of conversation, to be so friendly towards anyone, especially one who had come from England, made me restless.
Tahir Shah
Image
The Occident has never found it easy to grasp the strange netherworld of spirits that followers of Islam universally believe exist in a realm overlaid our own.
Tahir Shah
Image
In India an explanation is often more confusing than what prompted it.
Tahir Shah
Image
During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.
Tahir Shah
Image
Stories are not like the real world they aren't held back by what we know is false or true. What's important is how a story makes you feel inside.
Tahir Shah
Image
Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.
Tahir Shah
Image
To be selfless, you would give charity anonymously, walj softly on the earth, and look out for others-even total strangers-before you look out for yourself. For the Arab mind, the self is an obstacle, an impediment, in humanity's quest foe real progress.
Tahir Shah
Image
Foras Road has a sordid reputation (…) Old crones sat in doorways, while their daughters were pushed out to earn money. It is intriguing that a society which is very covert with sexuality should be so straightforward about prostitution.
Tahir Shah
Image
Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart.
Tahir Shah
Image
Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.
Tahir Shah
Image
The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there.
Tahir Shah
Image
A man who embarks on a journey must know when to end it.
Tahir Shah
Image
The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.
Tahir Shah
Image
One senses that, in these conditions, no amount of wet-wiping could bring true hygiene.
Tahir Shah
Image
Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.
Tahir Shah
Image
To Succeed, you must reach for the stars, and let your imagination find its own path
Tahir Shah
Image
Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.
Tahir Shah
Image
I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.
Tahir Shah
Image
There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.
Tahir Shah
Image
My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.
Tahir Shah