James Staiti > James's Quotes

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  • #1
    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

  • #2
    Idries Shah
    “It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.”
    ― Idries Shah, The Sufis

  • #3
    Idries Shah
    “Right time, right place, right people equals success.
    Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #4
    Idries Shah
    “Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm.”
    ― Idries Shah

  • #5
    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

  • #6
    Idries Shah
    “MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you”
    ― Idries Shah

  • #7
    Idries Shah
    “Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #8
    Idries Shah
    “The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.”
    ― Idries Shah, The Sufis

  • #9
    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

  • #10
    Idries Shah
    “A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #11
    Idries Shah
    “Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #12
    Idries Shah
    “One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.”
    ― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action: An Anthology of Important Papers

  • #13
    Idries Shah
    “A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence; I do not know. What I do know is that he has a perfectly delightful absence.”
    ― Idries Shah

  • #14
    Idries Shah
    “You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.”
    ― Idries Shah

  • #15
    Idries Shah
    “From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying:
    'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #16
    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

  • #17
    Idries Shah
    “You have not forgotten to remember;
    You have remembered to forget.
    But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #18
    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

  • #19
    Idries Shah
    “A real secret is something which only one person knows.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #20
    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

  • #21
    Idries Shah
    “Enemies are often former or potential friends who have been denied - or think that they have been denied - something.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #22
    Idries Shah
    “Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #23
    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

  • #24
    Idries Shah
    “When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.”
    ― Idris SHah

  • #25
    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

  • #26
    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

  • #27
    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

  • #28
    Idries Shah
    “The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #29
    Idries Shah
    “An egocentric pessimist is a person who thinks he hasn't changed, but that other people are behaving worse than before.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections

  • #30
    Idries Shah
    “Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.”
    ― Idries Shah, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study : Beginning to Begin



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