Top 450 Idries Shah Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “The phenomenal is the channel to the Truth. Al mujazu qantarat al Haqiqa.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

254. “Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why is has been said: ‘Greed is the mother of incapacity’.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

257. “Patience is a garment which has never worn out.”

— Idries Shah

258. “Take the wheat, not the measure in which it is contained.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

260. “They have fixed our nutrition and arranged our life-span. More than this, and ahead of this, efforts will not be productive.”

— Idries Shah

261. “Inheritance and culture obscure people’s higher capacities.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

263. “Me conviertes en un pecador si me impides darte hospitalidad.”

— Idries Shah

264. “Those who say ‘I am ready to learn’, or ‘I am not ready to learn’ are as often mistaken as they are correct in their surmise.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

267. “Be a tiger – if you are ready for a tiger’s problems.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

269. “The sort of man who, throwing a stone upon the ground, would miss.”

— Idries Shah

270. “A Sufi has a right to be served, but he has no right to demand. Maruf Karkhi of Khorasan.”

— Idries Shah

271. “La gente habla de “servicio, esfuerzo, amor, conocimiento”. Pero con el conocimiento sabes lo que es amor, y lo que no lo es.”

— Idries Shah

272. “And Rumi tells us, ‘Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue’.”

— Idries Shah

273. “The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.”

— Idries Shah

274. “One should not pray if that prayer is vanity.”

— Idries Shah

275. “People who cannot trust are themselves not trustworthy, and therefore cannot be entrusted with important things.”

— Idries Shah

276. “Sufism is, in fact, not a mystical system, not a religion, but a body of knowledge.”

— Idries Shah

277. “At His door, what is the difference between Moslem and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.”

— Idries Shah

278. “Have the nature of a dervish: then wear a stylish cap.”

— Idries Shah

279. “Lo que va dentro de una mina de sal se convierte en sal.”

— Idries Shah

280. “If you forsake a path, it is because you were hoping for conviction from it. You seek conviction, not self-knowledge.”

— Idries Shah

281. “Has it not occurred to you that, conversely, other people do not have your difficulties because they do not react as you do to what happens?”

— Idries Shah

282. “The tongue is the best masseur of furrowed brows.”

— Idries Shah

283. “A stolen kiss is not easily returned.”

— Idries Shah

284. “The best player of a game is the watcher – ask him.”

— Idries Shah

285. “Si no puedes sentarte en un trono como un rey, sujeta, como un tendero, la cuerda de la tienda Real.”

— Idries Shah

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

— Idries Shah

287. “Mejor discutir con un amigo que apoyar enemigos.”

— Idries Shah

288. “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

289. “I am the Real, for I have not ceased to be real – through the Real.”

— Idries Shah

290. “The teacher works in accordance with the prospects of his students and the possibility of maintaining the community of Sufis.”

— Idries Shah

291. “Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand.”

— Idries Shah

292. “Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.”

— Idries Shah

293. “In a village where everyone has only one leg, the biped will hop about more lamely than anyone else, if he knows what is good for him.”

— Idries Shah

294. “It is as true as anything else which can be spoken to say that all knowledge is really available everywhere.”

— Idries Shah

295. “Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.”

— Idries Shah

296. “You must improve yourself on a higher level if you are to be able to help people, and not just weep over them.”

— Idries Shah

297. “If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.”

— Idries Shah

298. “Rumi speaks of people who rely upon the written word as sometimes being no more than donkeys laden with books.”

— Idries Shah

299. “They say: ‘Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.”

— Idries Shah

300. “Los corazones de los nobles son las tumbas de las confidencias.”

— Idries Shah