Stephen Anthony > Stephen's Quotes

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  • #1
    “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!”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: idries-shah, information, life, meaning, spiritual, sufism
    3 likes

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  • #2
    “People don't get the gurus they deserve, they get the gurus they manufacture.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: guru, idries-shah, reflections, spiritual, wisdom
    6 likes

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  • #3
    Idries Shah
    “It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: timing
    30 likes

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  • #4
    Idries Shah
    “The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.”
    ― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action: An Anthology of Important Papers
    tags: sufi, sufism, trust
    29 likes

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  • #5
    Idries Shah
    “Sayings of the Prophet
    Trust: Trust in God – but tie your camel first.”
    ― Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
    tags: hadith, knowledge-teaching, mohammed, sufis, sufism, wisdom
    40 likes

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  • #6
    Idries Shah
    “If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: expectation, gifts, perception, present-moment
    33 likes

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  • #7
    Idries Shah
    “Good. Show me a man who thinks that he knows what 'good' is, and I will probably be able to show you a horror of a person. Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.”
    ― Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
    tags: sufism
    35 likes

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  • #8
    Idries Shah
    “The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.”
    ― Idries Shah
    tags: llumination, love, sufism
    35 likes

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  • #9
    Idries Shah
    “To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: freedom, obsession, slavery, struggle-strength-character
    33 likes

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  • #10
    Idries Shah
    “If you want to make an ordinary man happy, or think that he is happy, give him money, power, flattery, gifts, honours. If you want to make a wise man happy - improve yourself!”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: flattery, money, power, wisdom, wise-man
    32 likes

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  • #11
    Idries Shah
    “One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.”
    ― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action: An Anthology of Important Papers
    tags: learning, sufi, sufism, trust
    33 likes

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  • #12
    Idries Shah
    “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, Reflections
    tags: ego, essence, learning, sufi, superficiality
    33 likes

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  • #13
    Idries Shah
    “When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.”
    ― Idris SHah
    36 likes

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  • #14
    Idries Shah
    “A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: approval, free-will
    37 likes

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  • #15
    Idries Shah
    “The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.”
    ― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action: An Anthology of Important Papers
    tags: intellect, knowledge, philosophy, practice, sufi, sufism
    35 likes

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  • #16
    Idries Shah
    “Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.”
    ― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action: An Anthology of Important Papers
    tags: attachment, materialism, pleasure, pride, religion, sufi, sufism
    36 likes

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  • #17
    Idries Shah
    “Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.”
    ― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
    tags: assumptions, conditioning, learning, mind, psychology, study, sufi, sufis, sufism
    43 likes

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  • #18
    Idries Shah
    “Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.”
    ― Idries Shah, The Sufis
    tags: evolution, learning, saadi-quotes, sufis, sufism
    48 likes

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  • #19
    Idries Shah
    “Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: absence, curse, habits, presence, shade, sun
    49 likes

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  • #20
    Idries Shah
    “Knowledge is something which you can use.
    Belief is something which uses you.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: asleep, belief, knowledge, usefulness, uselessness
    49 likes

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  • #21
    Idries Shah
    “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, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
    tags: generosity, learning, sufi, sufis, sufism
    51 likes

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  • #22
    Idries Shah
    “The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.”
    ― Idries Shah, The Sufis
    tags: sufi, sufism
    50 likes

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  • #23
    Idries Shah
    “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, Seeker After Truth: A Handbook
    tags: learning, sleeping, sufis, sufism
    53 likes

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  • #24
    Idries Shah
    “You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: friendship, reliability
    58 likes

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  • #25
    Idries Shah
    “Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: information, knowledge, opinion
    64 likes

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  • #26
    Idries Shah
    “It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: caring, knowledge
    24 likes

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  • #27
    Idries Shah
    “Saying of the Prophet
    Understanding
    Speak to everyone in accordance with his degree of understanding.”
    ― Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
    tags: evolution, hadith, islam, muhammad, psychology, religion, sufis, sufism
    14 likes

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  • #28
    Idries Shah
    “If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: enemy, hatred, importance, opposition
    12 likes

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  • #29
    Idries Shah
    “In the modern world we are in a paradoxical situation; because although in theory man knows that he can extend his attention to something and then remove it, he very often does not do so. In many areas he does not look at something and then detach from it, and look at something else.
    Once he has found something to interest himself in, he cannot detach himself from it efficiently, and therefore he cannot be objective. Note that, in most if not all languages, we have words like 'objectivity' which leads people to imagine that they have it, or can easily use it. That is equivalent (in reality if not in theory) to saying 'I know the word “gold”, so I am rich.”
    ― Idries Shah, Knowing How to Know : A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition
    tags: knowledge, sufis, sufism, truth, wisdom
    10 likes

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  • #30
    Idries Shah
    “Why do people always wonder whether books are any good, without wondering whether they are themselves in a state to profit from them?”
    ― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
    tags: books-and-sufism, literature, psychology, sufis, sufism
    6 likes



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