1,355 Quotes by Idries Shah

Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.

Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.

The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: 'What do you think I am, stupid, or something?

The chicken had his wish, and was magically transformed into a fox. Then he found that he could not digest grain.

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?

Sufism, the “secret tradition,” is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.

A man must be a Solomon before his magical ring will work.

A donkey eats a melon, it remains a donkey.

When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty – what difference does it make what your decisions are?