2026 Reading Challenge

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
    tags: attachment, materialism, pleasure, pride, religion, sufi, sufism
    36 likes

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  • #2
    Idries Shah
    “It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.”
    ― Idries Shah, The Sufis
    tags: sufi, sufism
    131 likes

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  • #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
    tags: awareness, history, possibility, timing
    114 likes

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

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  • #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
    tags: friendship, reliability
    58 likes

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  • #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
    25 likes

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  • #7
    Idries Shah
    “Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: information-overload, optimism, pessimism
    85 likes

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  • #8
    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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  • #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
    tags: caring, knowledge
    24 likes

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  • #10
    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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  • #11
    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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  • #12
    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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  • #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
    tags: bound-feet, china, communists, copacabana, eurasians, ipanema, spirit-rituals
    17 likes

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  • #14
    Idries Shah
    “You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.”
    ― Idries Shah
    tags: sufi, sufism
    77 likes

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  • #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
    tags: ignorance, self-importance, thought, truth
    24 likes

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  • #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
    tags: expectation, gifts, perception, present-moment
    33 likes

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  • #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
    tags: conditioning, forgetting, remembering
    27 likes

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  • #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
    tags: sufi, sufism, trust
    29 likes

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  • #19
    Idries Shah
    “A real secret is something which only one person knows.”
    ― Idries Shah, Reflections
    tags: essential, secrets, self-awareness, transcendance
    22 likes

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  • #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
    tags: freedom, obsession, slavery, struggle-strength-character
    33 likes

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  • #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
    tags: enemies-and-friends, enemies-and-opposition, friends, originality, real-causes
    20 likes

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  • #22
    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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  • #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
    tags: intellect, knowledge, philosophy, practice, sufi, sufism
    35 likes

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  • #24
    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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  • #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
    tags: ego, essence, learning, sufi, superficiality
    33 likes

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  • #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
    tags: llumination, love, sufism
    35 likes

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  • #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
    tags: flattery, money, power, wisdom, wise-man
    32 likes

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  • #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
    tags: fool, silence, wisdom
    18 likes

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  • #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
    tags: change, egocentrism, pessimism
    18 likes

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  • #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
    tags: knowledge, mind, veils
    17 likes



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Tags From James’s Quotes

attachment
materialism
pleasure
pride
religion
sufi
sufism
awareness
history
possibility
timing
friendship
reliability
information-overload
optimism
pessimism
caring
knowledge
approval
free-will
information
opinion
learning
trust
bound-feet
china
communists
copacabana
eurasians
ipanema
spirit-rituals
ignorance
self-importance
thought
truth
expectation
gifts
perception
present-moment
conditioning
forgetting
remembering
essential
secrets
self-awareness
transcendance
freedom
obsession
slavery
struggle-strength-character
enemies-and-friends
enemies-and-opposition
friends
originality
real-causes
absence
curse
habits
presence
shade
sun
intellect
philosophy
practice
ego
essence
superficiality
llumination
love
flattery
money
power
wisdom
wise-man
fool
silence
change
egocentrism
mind
veils