Idries Shah, Reflections

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

"People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that 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."

"It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares."

"To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides."

"A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well."

"Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal. Interesting people can find something interesting in all things."

"People cannot handle prejudice because they try to deal with the symptom. Prejudice is the symptom, wrong assumptions are the cause.'Prejudice is the daughter of assumption."

"Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?"

"What is sometimes thought to be clever is, significantly often, merely an advanced form of foolishness."

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

"Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials."

"Water shrinks wool, urgency shrinks time. Shrinkage may be an advantage or the reverse, according to expectation."

"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."

"Who is the wrong person to criticise?You"

"Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise."

"When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'."

"If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him."

"I have heard all that you have had to say to me on your problems. You ask me what to do about them. It is my view that your real problem is that you are a member of the human race. Face that one first."

"You are still adrift while you still think that a means is an end."

"The Seeking of the Master. Musa Najib was asked why he charged a fee from those who came to his sessions; and why he often did not even address his audience. He said: 'I charge for this object lesson: people believe that knowledge must be given freely, and consequently mistake everything which is free for knowledge. I do not always lecture because, among Sufis, “The Master finds the pupil.” The pupil has to be physically present: but he may be absent in every other sense. When I discern that a pupil is “present” then I “find” him, for then his inner call is audible to me, even if it is silent to him.' 'Seek and you will be found."