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Idries Shah

Afghan author, thinker, and teacher, 20th century322 QUOTES

Browse 322 quotes by Idries Shah — Idries Shah’s favorite and most popular sayings, only on dailyquotes.wiki.

Idries Shah, also known as Idris Shah and Indries Shah, was an Afghan author, thinker, and teacher in the Sufi tradition. He wrote in the 20th century and used the pen name Arkon Daraul. He is remembered for work that brought together Sufi teaching, psychology, spirituality, travel writing, and cultural studies. Shah wrote more than three dozen books across those fields, moving between reflective, practical, and exploratory subjects. His work often connects inner life with broader questions of culture and belief, which is why he is read both as a spiritual writer and as an interpreter of ideas and traditions.

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

TRUSTLEARNINGKNOWLEDGEWISDOM

“You will always have doubts, but only discover them at a useful time for your weakness to point them out.”

EVOLUTIONTIME

“None should say: ‘I can trust,’ or ‘I cannot trust’ until he is master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.”

EVOLUTIONTRUST

“...action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher.”

EVOLUTIONLEARNINGKNOWLEDGEWISDOM

“Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.”

EVOLUTION

“To drown in treacle is just as unpleasant as to drown in mud.People today are in danger of drowning in information; but because they have been taught 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.The lightning said to the oak tree: 'Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!”

REFLECTIONS

“Forms have changed through the centuries in obedience to the external world to which all forms belong.”

HISTORY

“For every Pharoah there is a Moses.”

REFLECTIONS

“In the distorting mirror of your mind, an angel can seem to have a devil's face.”

WISDOM

“Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.”

GENEROSITYLEARNINGKNOWLEDGE

“The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.”

FREEDOMLEARNINGKNOWLEDGE

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

EVOLUTIONTEACHINGLEARNINGDESIREKNOWLEDGE

“Do not think that your magic ring will work if you are not yourself Solomon.”

LOVEKNOWLEDGE

“One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.”

EVOLUTIONRELIGION

“Sufism is the doing in this lifetime what any fool will be doing in then thousand years’ time.”

EVOLUTIONTIMEWISDOM

“It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.”

EVOLUTIONLEARNINGORDERHUMILITYKNOWLEDGE

“Sufism is experiential. Capacities, even those for learning beyond a certain point, are provoked by Sufis, by one's own efforts and what results from them, and by an element of what is referred to by Sufis as the Divine.”

EVOLUTIONLEARNINGKNOWLEDGEWISDOM

“If you want special illumination, look upon the human face:See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth.”

TRUTHENLIGHTENMENTWISDOM

“They asked Abboud of Omdurman: 'Which is better, to be young or to be old?' He said: 'To be old is to have less time before you and more mistakes behind. I leave you to decide whether this is better than the reverse.”

TIMEDEATHRELIGIONFEARFAILURE

“Knowledge gives nothing to a man until he gives everything to it.”

KNOWLEDGEWISDOM