Idries Shah Quotations | Page 2

When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it.

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.

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.

Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.

A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung to death by scorpions.

People used to play with toys. Now the toys play with them.

The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.

History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.

People who speak or act in an ordinary fashion are most likely to be those who have been the recipients of higher experiences. But because they do not rage around, wild-eyed, people think that they are very ordinary folk and therefore not aware of anything unknown to the general run of man.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.