Top 450 Idries Shah Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “The process of learning is the process of discovering what really exists.”

— Idries Shah

202. “Recognizing a ‘True Master’ is possible only when the postulant, man or woman, is what we call ‘sincere’.”

— Idries Shah

203. “People talk about ‘service, effort, love, knowledge’. But with knowledge you know what love is, and what it is not.”

— Idries Shah

204. “What is humanity? To feel pain at the sorrows of our neighbours, to feel humiliated at the humiliation of fellow-beings.”

— Idries Shah

205. “The Sufi way of thinking is particularly appropriate in a world of mass communication, when every effort is directed towards making people believe that they want or need certain things; that they should believe certain things; that they should as a consequence do certain things that their manipulators want them to do.”

— Idries Shah

206. “What the self-imagined mystic seeks only in his meditation is visible to the Sufi on every street corner and in every alleyway.”

— Idries Shah

207. “The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.”

— Idries Shah

208. “The Sufis have said: ‘The importance of something is in inverse proportion to its attractiveness.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

210. “Hariri says, in his Maqamat: ‘Safety is on the river’s BANK.”

— Idries Shah

211. “Antes el Sufismo era una realidad sin nombre: ahora es un nombre sin una realidad”.”

— Idries Shah

212. “These lecture provide material for the consideration of common factors, in theory and in development, from the viewpoint of the idea of surrender to the Divine Will, reviewing some aspects of the interplay between Christians and Moslems, and introducing material from and about Sufis.”

— Idries Shah

213. “El color del agua parece ser del color del vaso dentro del cual ha sido vertida’.”

— Idries Shah

214. “There are as many paths to Truth as there are souls of men.”

— Idries Shah

215. “Recuerda que la codicia incluye la codicia de no ser codicioso.”

— Idries Shah

216. “The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.”

— Idries Shah

217. “Never follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.”

— Idries Shah

218. “A Sufi is alive to the value of time, and is given, every moment, to what that moment demands.”

— Idries Shah

219. “Saying of the Prophet. The Bequest: I have nothing to leave you except my family.”

— Idries Shah

220. “Each flies with its own kind: pigeon with pigeon, hawk with hawk.”

— Idries Shah

221. “The lightning said to the oak tree: ‘Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!”

— Idries Shah

222. “The oven is hot: make bread.”

— Idries Shah

223. “Deteriorated science is a cult, so is imitative or deteriorated Sufism.”

— Idries Shah

224. “I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages. Rabia.”

— Idries Shah

225. “The worst of sages is a visitor of princes; the best of princes is a visitor of sages.”

— Idries Shah

226. “Beggars and Workers IT IS RELATED of Ibn el-Arabi that people said to him: ‘Your circle is composed mainly of beggars, husbandmen and artisans. Can you not find people of intellect who will follow you, so that perhaps more authoritative notice might be taken of your teachings?’ He said: ‘The Day of Calamity will be infinitely.”

— Idries Shah

227. “Things which are seemingly opposed may in fact be working together.”

— Idries Shah

228. “Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.”

— Idries Shah

229. “Much smoke has been seen, and caused great fear of fire – even when no fire ensued.”

— Idries Shah

230. “Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to be absolute.”

— Idries Shah

231. “When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty – what difference does it make what your decisions are?”

— Idries Shah

232. “Words, they say, are the food of minds. But, like other foods, they can do little by themselves.”

— Idries Shah

233. “The significance of the dwelling is in the dweller.”

— Idries Shah

234. “The more wakeful a man is to the things which surround him, the more asleep is he, and his waking is worse than his sleep.”

— Idries Shah

235. “Great men are great until they know it. Saints are holy until they know it.”

— Idries Shah

236. “A solved problem is as useful to a man’s mind as a broken sword on a battlefield.”

— Idries Shah

237. “La felicidad de los superficiales: cuando un hombre que ha perdido su asno lo encuentra otra vez.”

— Idries Shah

238. “As with any other specialisation, teaching is a vocation, open only to those who are truly capable of discharging its functions.”

— Idries Shah

239. “La historia no es generalmente lo que ha sucedido. La historia es lo que algunas personas consideraron significativo.”

— Idries Shah

240. “A man’s capacity is the same as his breadth of vision.”

— Idries Shah

241. “Los milagros, para el Sufi, no son evidentes; son instrumentales.”

— Idries Shah

242. “Do not dwell upon whether you will put yourself into the hands of a teacher. You are always in his hands.”

— Idries Shah

243. “Ten la naturaleza de un derviche; entonces usa con un gorro elegante.”

— Idries Shah

244. “Miracles, to the Sufi, are not evidential, they are instrumental.”

— Idries Shah

245. “Los Sufis sostienen que la experiencia y el conocimiento superior le llegan al hombre o mujer en exacta concordancia con su valor, capacidad, y esfuerzo puesto en ello.”

— Idries Shah

246. “The donkey which brought you to this door must be dismissed if you want to get through it’.”

— Idries Shah

247. “The person who has not seen the face of trust – has seen nothing. The person who has not found contentment – has found nothing.”

— Idries Shah

248. “If the father cannot, the son will finish the task.”

— Idries Shah

249. “Eat what you desire, but dress like other people.”

— Idries Shah

250. “If it is dark enough, one candle is plenty.”

— Idries Shah