Top 450 Idries Shah Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “What do I sing, and what does my tambourine sing?”

— Idries Shah

152. “Pero los Sufis trabajan EN el mundo, y por lo tanto CON ‘cosas del mundo’.”

— Idries Shah

153. “The Sufi teacher’s mission is to be in the service of those who can learn.”

— Idries Shah

154. “Disappointment cannot exist without expectation. “The expected apricot is never as sweet when it reaches the mouth.”

— Idries Shah

155. “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

156. “Lo Aparente es el Puente hacia lo Real’.”

— Idries Shah

157. “There is no purpose in hammering cold iron.”

— Idries Shah

158. “The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real.”

— Idries Shah

159. “A donkey eats a melon, it remains a donkey.”

— Idries Shah

160. “La Paciencia es una prenda que nunca se ha desgastado.”

— Idries Shah

161. “Sufi service has to be the right kind of service; neither servitude nor hypocrisy.”

— Idries Shah

162. “Si no comprendes, no puedes amar. Solamente puedes imaginar que amas.”

— Idries Shah

163. “Almost every day I am reminded of Saadi’s reflection that there is no senseless tyranny like that of subordinates.”

— Idries Shah

164. “When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.”

— Idries Shah

165. “Better the demon which makes you improve than the angel who threatens.”

— Idries Shah

166. “El dicho Sufi es: “Dios, para una abeja, es algo que tiene DOS aguijones.”

— Idries Shah

167. “La gente en general maneja las situaciones por medio de suposiciones.”

— Idries Shah

168. “A man is deficient in understanding until he perceives that there is a whole cycle of evolution possible within himself: repeating endlessly, offering opportunities for personal development.”

— Idries Shah

169. “Cosas que parecen opuestas pueden de hecho estar trabajando juntas.”

— Idries Shah

170. “Brotherhood” to the more civilised is connected with training and identity of interest.’ Man.”

— Idries Shah

171. “If you are penniless you will have a thousand dreams. Get even a single piece of money, however, and you will have only twenty options.”

— Idries Shah

172. “It is your duty to do your best. It is not, however, your birth-right to prevail.”

— Idries Shah

173. “Antes de que el huerto, el vino o la uva estuviese en el mundo, nuestra alma estaba borracha de vino inmortal.”

— Idries Shah

174. “The bird which has no knowledge of pure water, has his beak in salt water all year round.”

— Idries Shah

175. “El burro que te trajo a esta puerta debe ser desechado si quieres atravesarla”.”

— Idries Shah

176. “The would-be Sufi needs guidance precisely because books, texts, while telling you what is needed, do not tell you when.”

— Idries Shah

177. “Toma el trigo, no la medida que lo contiene.”

— Idries Shah

178. “Whoever is to be wise despises himself. Only the ignorant trust their own judgement.”

— Idries Shah

179. “Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words.”

— Idries Shah

180. “Well-meant techniques such as arbitrary self-mortification, are useless.”

— Idries Shah

181. “Aquello que buscas en tu retiro, yo lo veo claramente en todas las carreteras y caminos.”

— Idries Shah

182. “Las ramas sin fruto pueden parecer poco elegantes. Son, para el cocinero, los medios para hacer su fuego.”

— Idries Shah

183. “The bowl is warmer than the soup.”

— Idries Shah

184. “If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.”

— Idries Shah

185. “No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk.”

— Idries Shah

186. “El Sendero no ha de ser encontrado en lugar alguno excepto en el servicio humano”.”

— Idries Shah

187. “No colour comes after black.”

— Idries Shah

188. “El Sufi debe ser capaz de alternar su pensamiento entre lo relativo y lo Absoluto, lo aproximado y lo Real.”

— Idries Shah

189. “Un perro amarillo es hermano del chacal.”

— Idries Shah

190. “Se ha visto mucho humo, y ha causado gran temor de fuego – incluso cuando no se ha producido fuego alguno.”

— Idries Shah

191. “The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire.”

— Idries Shah

192. “Hay un tipo de hombre peor que un hombre jactancioso: uno que se queja.”

— Idries Shah

193. “Angels are the powers hidden in the faculties and organs of man.”

— Idries Shah

194. “Saadi’s dictum, in the Bostan: ‘The Path is not in the rosary, the prayer-mat and the robe.”

— Idries Shah

195. “If you cannot sit on a throne like a king, seize, like a tent-pitcher, the rope of the Royal tent.”

— Idries Shah

196. “Dhun’nun el Egipcio: “Los Sufis son aquellos que han erradicado de sus mentes las tendencias humanas de envidia y antagonismo.”

— Idries Shah

197. “El Sufismo es la esencia de todas las religiones”.”

— Idries Shah

198. “Sufism is that which succeeds in bringing to man the High Knowledge.”

— Idries Shah

199. “Dios provee el alimento, los hombres proveen los cocineros.”

— Idries Shah

200. “If you have two shirts, sell one and with the money buy a flower’.”

— Idries Shah