Idries Shah quotes

Idries Shah was an Indian author and teacher, widely known for his works on Sufism and Eastern philosophy. His books introduced Western audiences to traditional Sufi thought and stories. He influenced generations of writers, thinkers, and seekers interested in spiritual development and cross-cultural understanding. Here are 35 of his quotes:

You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.

Idries Shah

MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you.

Idries Shah

You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.

Idries Shah

Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.

Idries Shah

Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.

Idries Shah

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

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.

Idries Shah

From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.

Idries Shah

Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you - but: what did you learn?

Idries Shah

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

Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.

Idries Shah

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.

Idries Shah

A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.

Idries Shah

You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.

Idries Shah

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

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

When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.

Idries Shah

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.

Idries Shah

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

It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.

Idries Shah

Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?

Idries Shah

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

Idries Shah