Quotes From "Seeker After Truth" By Idries Shah

1
Saadi’s dictum, in the Bostan: ‘The Path is not in the rosary, the prayer-mat and the robe Idries Shah
2
If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed. Idries Shah
3
Worry is a cloud which rains destruction. Idries Shah
4
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
5
One should not pray if that prayer is vanity. Idries Shah
6
Q: What is a fundamental mistake of man's? A: To think that he is alive, when he has merely fallen asleep in life's waiting-room. Idries Shah
7
Ignorance is the Mother of Opposition Idries Shah
8
Deteriorated science is a cult, so is imitative or deteriorated Sufism. Idries Shah
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The Sufis have said: ‘The importance of something is in inverse proportion to its attractiveness. Idries Shah
10
The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service Idries Shah
11
But the Sufis work IN the world, and therefore WITH 'things of the world'. Idries Shah
12
Great men are great until they know it. Saints are holy until they know it. Idries Shah
13
Hariri says, in his Maqamat: ‘Safety is on the river’s BANK. Idries Shah
14
Q: How can I help myself? A: By remembering the proverb: ‘The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service’, from Saadi. Idries Shah
15
A Sufi is one who is not bound by anything nor does he bind anything Idries Shah
16
Things which are seemingly opposed may in fact be working together Idries Shah
17
Like calls to like, truth to truth and deceit to deceit. Idries Shah
18
Whatever goes into a salt-mine becomes salt. Idries Shah
19
It is experience which teaches, not controversy based on supposed logic and assumptions of what is likely to be true. Idries Shah
20
Sufism is education, in that it has a body of knowledge which it transmits to those who have not got it. Idries Shah
21
When there is a true or useful thing, there is sure to be a counterfeit. Idries Shah
22
I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so. Idries Shah
23
But the minimum human duty is to serve others: it is no great attainment. Idries Shah
24
When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it. Idries Shah