Idries Shah Quotes - Page 8

Assume that you are part-hypocrite and part heedless, and you will not be far wrong.

The man who knows must discharge a function. The one who does not, cannot arrogate one to himself; he can only try to do so.

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

There is no wisdom where there is no common sense: it cannot under those conditions find any expression.

None should say: 'I can trust' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.

Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.

You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the contact or the subject of the transaction) than you can in years of formal effort.

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?

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

The Sufis are unanimous that a Guide (Sheikh) is absolutely essential, though never available on demand: 'the Sufis are not merchants'.

If the path has been laid down, why the successive appearance of different teachers? Why would anyone reinvent the wheel, if everything were as cosy and sequential as primitive longing so easily convinces us?