Idries Shah

Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown. ↗

— Idries Shah

#men

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it. ↗

— Idries Shah

#learning #life #process #sufis #sufism

The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age. ↗

— Idries Shah

#becoming #future #laziness #rehearsal #age

Few things are more absurd than wise saws originally designed to inculcate or maintain the social needs of a society long past - when they are applied to today. ↗

— Idries Shah

#big-picture #lack-of-knowledge #lack-of-perspective #rigidity #design

Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise. ↗

— Idries Shah

#donkeys #ego #evolution #intelligence #poses

Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic. ↗

— Idries Shah

#inspirational #life #reality #sufis #sufism

People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i + >why< + i + > you want to understand. ↗

— Idries Shah

#technique #understanding #motivational

If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it - especially if you have eyes. ↗

— Idries Shah

#have-a-care #knowledge #proof #beauty

A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung to death by scorpions. ↗

— Idries Shah

#fear-of-death #death

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

#give #given #giving #really #take