c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Go beyond of what's expected of you.
— Gabriella Jording
Hello,How are you?New in this world?How old are you??I'm sure that I know you....mm you are my father aren't you??You just revive, in a new body before few years now you are younger than me (FUCK YOU)...!
— Deyth Banger
In goodreads it's hard to find my progress in some stuff like quotes new and it needs a lot of work. But in twitter you can find everything - is it just a theory or a true. You decide!
— Deyth Banger
All people said to genius people which now are famous. "That's a bad idea", "Wow you must be an idiot to do that", "How can you devastate your talant with this comics and writting this??". But look now Stephen King (About the comics and the writting in his book "Writting Memoir and Craft he said that the teacher behaved with him like this way)... About the others, this are other people which this days are famous.
— Deyth Banger
Movies aren't scare, they are part of the scary stuff. But the scary thing is the truth, what more scary than that??What will happen if you understand what you eat now, what you drink?? You get disadvantages??...You don't want to make you look negative side, do you?
— Deyth Banger
Always you can find what you want, if you search enough times.
— Deyth Banger
How do you know, that you know?
— Deyth Banger
You are a monster, deathly, solipsistic to the bone and you’re blasphemous because all you want is You
— Caroline Kepnes, You
These intellectual guys don't like to have an intellectual conversation with you unless they're running the whole thing.
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
That's depressing, when somebody says "please" to you.
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
But what I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most.
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it?
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Second, you should examine the Scriptures for principles that relate to the issue at hand. The Lord will never ask you to do anything that is morally wrong or in contradiction to His Word. If what you are considering violates a concept you find in the Word, you can forget it.
— James C. Dobson
The time before was slow, as much as I grow as much the time don't forgive. As most people will say if you fuck the past, the past fucks you!
— Deyth Banger
Sometimes it is important to sit back and think about your life. Then you realize how awesome you are.
— Rohan Kulkarni
Whatever else you set out to do, begin by getting to know God and seeking His will in your life. If you do that, you will find Him. He will lead you. He will bless you. What a wonderful promise! But it is conditional. If you turn your back on the Lord, He will cast you off forever.
— James C. Dobson
Whenever you come upon a free supply of high-quality corn, provided unexpectedly right there in the middle of the forest, be careful! The people who put it there are probably sitting nearby in a stand, just waiting to take a shot at you. Keep your eyes and ears open!
— James C. Dobson
I wish If you stayed much longer !
— Eyad Ayman Kaifi
I never thought you'd treat me like I'm nothing.Even when my sharp mouth would fire off at least I'd always speak to you.I've never ignored you for days on end and never once did I question you. Now, I don't know how you feel.I don't know where you are or what you're doingI don't know who your with or who you're thinking aboutAnd my god do I miss you and every inch of youAll I can think about is the spaces between your fingers which my hand fit perfectly.The rhythm of our bodies in the night.The way you would look at me,You'd melt me with a glance and now,I'm crying over youAnd I miss you Please Come back to me
— Jordan Hoechlin
Never feel sorry or down on your luck when life knocks you down. Do your best to get up. Don't throw in the towel never say that's enough you can get through it. This you just have to be toughand believe in the greatness and perseverance you have in YOU.
— Angie karan
Expectations is the mother of all negative energies within in you...
— shivangi lavaniya
What I know?I know that you lie too often + every strugle or move you have made is telling a lot of about you.
— Deyth Banger
You can never know where you are going unless you know where you have been.
— Amelia Boynton
Reaching the brow of a stunted hill, Amelia paused in bewilderment at the sight of a towering contraption made of metal. It appeared to be a chute propped up on legs, tilted at a steep angle. Her attention was caught by a minor commotion farther afield … two men emerging from behind a small wooden shelter … they were shouting and waving their arms at her. Amelia instantly realized she had stumbled into danger, even before she saw the smoldering trail of sparks move, snakelike, along the ground toward the metal c
— Lisa Kleypas, Mine Till Midnight
Distinctiveness is a fundamental part of identity. We develop a clearer sense of ourselves by firming up the boundaries between ourselves and others. I am who I am because of how I am different from those around me. There is a point to my life because it cannot be carried out in exactly the same way by any other person. Differentness is part of what makes us who we are. It gives our lives meaning.
— Meg Jay
No matter how big the risk will be, you're willing to do anything, to get what you want or save yourself.
— Ebelsain Villegas
You must get close to people and then you know who they are.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
If one door closes, another opens. As far as you're growing and updating yourself, the world craves to have a piece of you.
— Assegid Habtewold
Happiness is when you are content with who you are, what you are, and where you are.
— Faith Tilley Johnson
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.
— Authur Rubinstein
All the so-called “secrets of success” will not work unless you do.
— Anonymous
We stand the risk of stagnation, because you refused to take risks. So life demands risks.
— Sunday Adelaja
When you confront, you save yourself of disillusionment.
— Sunday Adelaja
You know who is for you and against you when you confront.
— Sunday Adelaja
When you confront, you are more result oriented.
— Sunday Adelaja
You are more effective when you confront.
— Sunday Adelaja
You don’t waste time on suspecting or second guessing when you confront.
— Sunday Adelaja
You ought to learn as best as you can.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
There is a constant conflict between What you're and What I think YOU ARE!
— Ramana Pemmaraju
When you are on top of your stuff, which on its own will secure you continuous increase
— Sunday Adelaja
If you will conduct a poll with most people in our world today and ask them to tell you what is the ideal life they dream about. Most people will tell you that they are dreaming of having a house on an island, but really they are spending away and whining away their lives.
— Sunday Adelaja
Your ideas about possession must increase until you get to a state of full possession of the land, city and nation
— Sunday Adelaja
You need to step out to build before God could bless what you are building
— Sunday Adelaja
You need to guard the city before God could protect it for you
— Sunday Adelaja
Anytime you testify you have some amount of increase or the other, God does not want you to get satisfied
— Sunday Adelaja
No matter where you are involved with, your increase must have a purpose
— Sunday Adelaja
There is nothing you can do about it. Self-education is the most important thing that can happen to you.
— Sunday Adelaja
You ask why I love you. For this: You are a minute of quiet in a loud shouting world.
— Gabriel Gadfly
The problem with books is that they end. They seduce you.[…]You turn the page and there is nothing.
— Caroline Kepnes
If you know who you are, then it will not be difficult for you to stand your ground and on your convictions.
— Bien Sufficient
You were born to be amazing.
— Kris Vallotton
You are the sum of my infatuation and infinite devotion.
— Chicha Bans
You can renew your mind by filling it with the Word of God.
— Sunday Adelaja
Everyone cannot like you. Don't waste your time trying to change those who do not. Just be you.
— Stella Oladiran, Winning Formulas
It is you who must someday break through the protective polish of who you are, to become naked and powerful to who you can truly be.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
You’re nothing more than poison in my veins.
— LeAnne Mechelle, Write like no one is reading 2
You are the only person that can make you move
— Marcelle Hinkson
He wondered about himself (whether he was broken, or special, or better, or worse) and about other people (whether they were really all as stupid as they seemed).
— Victoria Schwab, Vicious
I love you" begins by I, but it ends up by you. ("Je t'aime" commence par Je, - Mais il finit par toi.)
— Charles de Leusse
You go on and on and on. I’ll never get to the end of you.
— Gordon Merrick, The Lord Won't Mind
Do not let a book get you in a reading slump
— readers
You are unique with special skills for a specific mission on earth.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
I don't feel sorry for myself, Beck. Lots of people have shitty parents and roaches in the cabinets and stale, raw Pop-Tarts for dinner and a TV that barely works and a dad who doesn't care when his son doesn't come home during a national disaster. The thing is, I'm lucky. I had the bookstore.
— Caroline Kepnes, You
In the cage, you feel loved, not trapped. Just like me.
— Caroline Kepnes, You
And [Benji] cheats on you, Beck. A lot. Compulsively. He is in intense pursuit of a performance artist who fucks with his head the way he fucks with yours.
— Caroline Kepnes, You
I fold my hands under my head and tell the books all about you. They listen, Beck. I know it sounds crazy, but they do.
— Caroline Kepnes, You
Everybody is living for a purpose, you might turn out to be significant or insignificant depending on the kind of message you are feeding the world with.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
There are many you’s within you, but all of them are still you! You are nothing but different you’s!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
Be all that you can be.You can be great.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
It depends on you, to keep pushing forward until you win or giving in. Always choice the former.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Always work with/surround yourself with people who help make you a better version of you. Kindly avoid those who don't.
— Don Roff
Every time when we think we smart, and following for mainstream, we've been used to kill ourselves. 08.07.11
— VicDo
Your destiny can only be defined by you.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
All Ways listen to strangers; They may tell you when a spider is on your shoulder." donnie harold harris
— Donnie Harold Harris
Why should you care so much about what others think of you, than what you think about yourself?
— Lailah Gifty Akita
If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you'll find excuse
— Ain Eineziz
He made you you—on purpose. You are the only you—ever. Becoming ourselves means we are actively cooperating with God's intention for our lives, not fighting him or ourselves. He looks at us with pleasure and with mercy, and he wants us to look at ourselves with pleasure and mercy too!
— Stasi Eldredge, Becoming Myself: Embracing God's Dream of You
It's just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants.
— Matt Damon
Talk to people about what they want to hear and they'll stay for more.Talk to them about what you want them to hear and they'll soon turn away.
— Nabil N. Jamal
Be yourself and you’ll discover a world of surprises, mysteries and strengths.
— Dee Dee Artner
There is only one you on the globe today. You have been built to inspire and designed to dazzle. Live your uniqueness!
— Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
If after giving it all that you possibly can, you do lose to the competition, then they really deserve the win.
— Nabil N. Jamal
You cannot advance if you cannot visualize the end from the start.
— Nabil N. Jamal
I don't see you making it to the top; nobody's going to help you get there. You have to do it all on your own. But if you want it so bad, prove me wrong.
— Nabil N. Jamal
Never say: "Who cares?!" Because there's always someone that cares. You.
— C.M.
Ready when you are.
— Kerstin Gier, Ruby Red
Serving others prepares you to lead others.
— Jim George
Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation!
— Maurice Druon, El rey de hierro
All the times are best whenever you are with me.
— pavankumar nagaraj
I jumped into a crowd full of "u"s they turned into underscores. Hit the pavement hard.” visualization words
— Antonia Perdu
All I think of ever is that I love you.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge.
— Danielle LaPorte
I have the right to remain violente. Everything I say can and will be used against you.
— Eminem
You need some coffee, don't you?""Yes, I've only had a gallon.
— John Grisham, The Confession
But you are not your bank account, or your ambition. You're not the cold clay lump you leave behind when you die. You're not your collection of walking personality disorders. You are Spirit, you are love, and even though it is hard to believe sometimes, you are free. You're here to love, and be loved, freely. If you find out next week that you are terminally ill - and we're all terminally ill on this bus - what will matter are memories of beauty, that people loved you, and that you loved them.
— Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
Never Forget Who You Are Beacause Its Like Forgetingg Water Is Wet,The Sun Is Bright,Snow Is Cold.Its Rudunent.
— Andrew Fukuda, The Hunt
I meant skies all empty aching blue. I meant years. I meant all of them with you.
— Kate Clanchy
Birds do not attend flight schools
—  Rivers do not attend flowing colleges
I found the only place I ever wanted to live again in this girl, right her in my arms. I leaned back just barely, ran my thumb from her brow o the tip of her nose and stopped at her lips, loving the way her eyes fluttered. “I’ll always come to you.
— Shelly Crane, Smash Into You
It hasn't been just a weekend for me, Wilson. I've wanted you for so long. I fought off the thoughts every day, exhausting every option to keep you off my mind; I can't do it anymore. I want you right here.
— Gretchen de la O, Almost Eighteen
Selfishness Stops The Flow Of Blessings To You and Others
— Brenda Johnson Padgitt
It is hard to be true to yourself because it is hard to be yourself.
— Jenny Hubbard, Paper Covers Rock
When she says 'I've never done this before" she just means with you
— Josh Stern, And That’s Why I’m Single
You made me to think of others, by thinking others I may forget you... Be Aware
— Nutan Bajracharya
Rise up and be you. Your rise is your growth.
— Anita R. Sneed-Carter
Everything needs love… and everything you do or don’t do is a reflection of how you love you!
— Sanjo Jendayi
If you are you because you are you, and I am I because I am I, then you are you and I am I.If you are you because I am I, and I am I because you are you, then you and I are not.
— Menachem Mendel
I felt so peaceful and safe because I knew that no matter what happened, from that day on, nothing can ever be that bad..because I had you.
— Zac Efron Seventeen Again
He who sleeps on the Road will lose either his hat or his head.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Before the antidote arrives from Iraq The man with snake-bite will be dead.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
The bowl is warmer than the soup.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
There are as many paths to Truth as there are souls of men.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
The Sufis say, "This is not a religion; it is religion
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Sufism is the essence of all religions.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
The worst of sages is a visitor of princes
—  the best of princes is a visitor of sages.
SOVEREIGNTYSovereignty is a wind of change. (Hariri)
— Idries Shah
The hearts of the noble are the graves of confidences.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
He who is fortunately enlightened [the Sufi]Knows that sophistry is from the devil and love from Adam.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Satisfaction is a treasure which does not decay.Proverb
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Nothing can defile the Sufi, and he in fact purifies everything.” Abu-Turab al-Nakhsabi.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Rumi himself once said that counterfeit gold is only to be found because there is such a thing as real gold to be copied.
— Idries Shah, A Perfumed Scorpion
Hariri says, in his Maqamat: ‘Safety is on the river’s BANK.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
The skilled artisan uses the same iron to make a horseshoeAs he does for a polished mirror for the King.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
The great poet Hafiz says that you should dye your prayer-carpet with wine if your teacher tells you to do so.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Everything man needs is in the world.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
God provides the food, men provide the cooks.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Q: How can I help myself?A: By remembering the proverb: ‘The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service’, from Saadi.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Ibn El-Arabi wrote, ‘The Teacher is he who hears you, then unveils you to yourself
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
And Rumi tells us, ‘Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue’.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
It is necessary to note," says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi).
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
At His door, what is the difference between Moslem and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
Saying of the Prophet.Ink and Blood:The ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
At His door, what is the difference between Muslim and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
The pathways into Sufic thinking are, it is traditionally said, almost as varied as the number of Sufis in existence.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
As with any other specialisation, teaching is a vocation, open only to those who are truly capable of discharging its functions.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
The fruit of timidity is neither gain nor loss.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
When you get a principle on which everyone is agreed, you get the beginning of complacency and deterioration.
— Idries Shah
When you feel least interested in following the Way which you have entered, this may be the time when it is most appropriate for you.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Unbelief and belief are both marching on His road, while both are saying, ‘He is one and He has no associates’.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
Understanding and knowledge are completely different sensations in the realm of Truth than they are in the realm of society.
— Idries Shah
If you forsake a path, it is because you were hoping for conviction from it. You seek conviction, not self-knowledge.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
Do not dwell upon whether you will put yourself into the hands of a teacher. You are always in his hands.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
Debating whether one trusts or not is a sign that one does not want to trust at all, and therefore is still incapable of it.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
The aspirant has to be guided by a mentor. The stage at which this guidance can take effect is seldom, if ever, perceptible to the learner.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Those who say ‘I am ready to learn’, or ‘I am not ready to learn’ are as often mistaken as they are correct in their surmise.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
A Sufi is one who is not bound by anything nor does he bind anything
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Things which are seemingly opposed may in fact be working together
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Like calls to like, truth to truth and deceit to deceit.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Whatever goes into a salt-mine becomes salt.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
It is experience which teaches, not controversy based on supposed logic and assumptions of what is likely to be true.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Sufism is education, in that it has a body of knowledge which it transmits to those who have not got it.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Sufi Teachers are not, as you might hope, people who make you feel peace and harmony.
— Idries Shah, Knowing How to Know: A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition
Of whom can we think well when it is believed that if nothing bad is done to you, this has been a kindness?
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
IMPRESSIONS
— Time brought a thousand impressions. Not one of them had I seen in the mirror of the imagination.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)
Sufism is that which succeeds in bringing to man the High Knowledge.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
What you are pleased to call Sufism is merely the record of past method.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
Before garden, vine or grape was in the world," writes one, "our soul was drunken with immortal wine.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
The definition of the word 'finished' is: 'This word means finished.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
Information about the activities of one body of Sufis may be harmful to the potential of another.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
Nothing cheap without reason.
— Idries Shah, The Commanding Self
Until you can understand illogicality, and the meaningfulness of it, shun the Sufis except for limited, precise, self-evident services.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
When sense has left a head, it should be called a tail.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do. Saadi teaches: ‘when the generous promise, they perform
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
BARQI: AESTHETICS IS ONLY THE LOWEST FORM OF PERCEPTION OF THE REAL.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
If you want to be a calligrapher, write, and write, and write.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
I am the Real, for I have not ceased to be real – through the Real.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
If the father cannot, the son will finish the task.
— Idries Shah
The spirit is the mirror
—  the body is the rust.(Divan-i-Shamsi Tabriz)
No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Pick up a bee from kindness, and learn the limitations of kindness.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Have the nature of a dervish: then wear a stylish cap.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
The sort of man who, throwing a stone upon the ground, would miss.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
SENTENCES OF THE KHAJAGANGURGANI:
— The teacher and the taught together produce the teaching.
Better the demon which makes you improve than the angel who threatens.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
As Ibn Arabi says: ‘Absolute existence is the source of all existence’.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Be kind to the hawk and harm the sparrow.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
One day the cub will become a wolf, even if it has been reared among the sons of man.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Each flies with its own kind: pigeon with pigeon, hawk with hawk.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
MAGHRIBI: Learning is in activity. Learning through words alone is minor activity.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Much smoke has been seen, and caused great fear of fire — even when no fire ensued.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Man has less than he suspects of: Time, Friends, Hopes, Qualities.Proverb
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
A stolen kiss is not easily returned.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
You will never reach Mecca, I fear: for you are on the road to Turkestan.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
It will pass, whatever it is.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
You make me a sinner if you stop me giving you hospitality.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Take the straight path, even if it is long: marry no widow, even if she is a houri.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
What goes into a salt-mine becomes salt.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
The power of Allah: no sound, no shape, no form. But when it manifests, none can resist it.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
SENTENCES OF THE KHAJAGANRUDBARI : Heart to heart is an essential means of passing on the secrets of the Path.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
No colour comes after black.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Sufism is experience, and hence not to be defined – imprisoned – in perennial, static categories.
— Idries Shah, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study
Sufism is, in fact, not a mystical system, not a religion, but a body of knowledge.
— Idries Shah
Learning without action is like wax without honey.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Even if false gold makes a man happy:At the mint it will be identified.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
A loan is the scissors of friendship.A man's own tongue may cut his throat.The cage has no value without the bird.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
What do I sing, and what does my tambourine sing?
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Dye your hair, certainly. But what can you do for your face?
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
EPITAPH OF JALALUDIN RUMIWhen we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
THE HEAVENSTo the mallet of the Highest MindThe heavens are the smallest possible ball.(Akhlaq-i-Mohsini)
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
THE BIRD AND THE WATERA bird which has not heard of fresh waterDips his beak in salt-water year after year.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)
— Idries Shah
You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.(Gulistan)
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Knowledge. How curious that a man who closes his hand upon air so often thinks that he has a ruby within his grasp.
— Idries Shah
When there is a true or useful thing, there is sure to be a counterfeit.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Miracles, to the Sufi, are not evidential, they are instrumental.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Eat what you desire, but dress like other people.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Continuously, in commemoration of the FriendWe drank wine, even before the creation of the vine.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Whoever knows God, does not (any longer) say “God”.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
He is the completed Man who, from his completeness, performs, with his Mastership, the work of a slave.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Everyone does not know the secrets of TruthThe States of Truth are not evidential.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Sufism is always systematised only for limited or transitory periods: because Sufism is primarly instrumental, not for enjoyment or display.
— Idries Shah, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study
To Him who has sense, a sign is enoughFor the heedless, however, a thousand expositions are not enough.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Whoever has taught me one letter has made me his slave.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
The bird which has no knowledge of pure water, has his beak in salt water all year round.
— Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Rust through washing never became white.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
If you cannot sit on a throne like a king, seize, like a tent-pitcher, the rope of the Royal tent.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
Those who can’t, try: those who can, don’t have to.
— Idries Shah, The Commanding Self
Give and TakeThe Chief takes less than he is givenAnd gives more than he has taken.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Give and TakeThe Chief takes less than he is givenAnd gives more than he has taken
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
No surgeon can treat the wounds of the tongue.
— Idries Shah
None meets harm who knows his capacity.
— Idries Shah
Now that I have found thee, I know that in the first step I took, I moved away from thee.
— Idries Shah
Hazrat Ali, in a saying attributed to him, says: ‘Man is in disguise, covered by his tongue’.
— Idries Shah
If you are covetous, you are a prisoner: If you are greedy, you will never be filled.
— Idries Shah
If you have two shirts, sell one and with the money buy a flower’.
— Idries Shah
A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years’ sincere, obedient dedication.
— Idries Shah
The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Better to quarrel with a friend than to support enemies.
— Idries Shah
The mine is always bigger than the gem.
— Idries Shah
Whoever has not first dug a well, should not steal a minaret.
— Idries Shah
Sufism is, in operation, pragmatic.
— Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi: An Anthology of Writings about Sufis and Their Work
It is the goldsmith who can assay the gold.
— Idries Shah, The Commanding Self
I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
The means through which people may perceive Truth have forms
—  Truth has no form.
Whoever might perfume a scorpionWill not thereby escape its sting. Bahaudin Naqshband
— Idries Shah, A Perfumed Scorpion
Truth has no form.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information....The key is the teacher.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
That which is given free is never knowledge. It may be information....but knowledge does not come in that manner.
— Idries Shah, The Commanding Self
Sufism, in one definition, "is" human life.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
To say "yes" to the Sufi way is to say "no" to imagined escapes.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial.
— Idries Shah
Three things cannot be retrieved:The arrow once sped from the bowThe word spoken in hasteThe missed opportunity. Ali, the Lion of Islam.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble.
— Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
With enough information, it is almost impossible "not" to predict people's action.
— Idries Shah, The Commanding Self
But the minimum human duty is to serve others: it is no great attainment.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
Sayings of the ProphetTrust: Trust in God – but tie your camel first.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
One lie will keep out forty truths.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
Whoever gives knowledge to a fool loses itAnd who keeps it from the deserving does wrong.
— Idries Shah
Remembering and ForgettingYou 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.
ServiceI will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.Rabia el-Adawia.
— Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do.
— Idries Shah
Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience and you will know'.
— Idries Shah
He that is purified by love is pure
—  and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is a Sufi.Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah.
Sufism is experiential
— Idries Shah
The people of the world have a fixed destiny. But the spiritually developed receive what is “not” in their destiny.
— Idries Shah
Counsels of BahaudinYou want to be filled. But something which is full has first to be emptied. Empty yourself so that you will fill properly, by observing these counsels, which you can do as duties to yourself:FirstNever follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?
— Idries Shah, Reflections
Voice in the nightA voice whispered to me last night: 'There is no such thing as a voice whispering in the night!
— Idries Shah, Wisdom of the Idiots
As the Eastern saying, by the sage Hilali, has it, 'one person who understands is worth a hundred who merely obey a custom.
— Idries Shah, Darkest England
WisdomSufian said: 'The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for that has itself to be sustained.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
A Better Beard that Yours. 'All true devotees wear a beard,' said the Imam to his audience. 'Show me a thick and lustrous beard and I'll show you a true believer!' 'My goat has a beard far bushier and longer than yours,' replied Nasrudin. 'Does that mean he is a better Muslim than you?
— Idries Shah, The World of Nasrudin
An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems.
— Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice
Contrary to Expectation. A wise man, the wonder of his age, taught his disciples from a seemingly inexhaustible store of wisdom. He attributed all his knowledge to a thick tome which was kept in a place of honour in his room. The sage would allow nobody to open the volume. When he died, those who had surrounded him, regarding themselves as his heirs, ran to open the book, anxious to possess what it contained. They were surprised, confused and disappointed when they found that there was writing on only one page. They became even more bewildered and then annoyed when they tried to penetrate the meaning of the phrase which met their eyes. It was: 'When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.
— Idries Shah, The Book of the Book
Many Americans first fell in love with the poetry of the thirteenth century teacher and spiritual leader Jelalludin Rumi during the early 1990s when the unparalleled lyrical grace, philosophical brilliance, and spiritual daring of his work took modern Western readers completely by surprise. The impact of its soulful beauty and the depth of its profound humanity were so intense that they reportedly prompted numerous individuals to spontaneously compose poetry.
— Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.
In the modern world we are in a paradoxical situation; because although in theory man knows that he can extend his attention to something and then remove it, he very often does not do so. In many areas he does not look at something and then detach from it, and look at something else.Once he has found something to interest himself in, he cannot detach himself from it efficiently, and therefore he cannot be objective. Note that, in most if not all languages, we have words like 'objectivity' which leads people to imagine that they have it, or can easily use it. That is equivalent (in reality if not in theory) to saying 'I know the word “gold”, so I am rich.
— Idries Shah, Knowing How to Know: A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition
Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour returned them, together with one extra one – a very tiny pot. 'What is this?' asked Nasrudin. 'According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,' said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbour's pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. 'Alas!' said Nasrudin, 'they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?'.
— Idries Shah, The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic.
— Idries Shah, Reflections
The Book of Wisdom. Simab said: 'I shall sell the Book of Wisdom for a hundred gold pieces, and some people will say that it is cheap.' Yunus Marmar said to him: 'And I shall give away the key to understanding it, and almost none shall take it, even free of charge.
— Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
Saying of the Mulla Nasrudin. If I survive this life without dying, I'll be surprised.
— Idries Shah, The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
Salute to the Thief. Junaid of Baghdad was passing the scene of a public hanging, where a thief was on the scaffold. Junaid bowed towards the criminal. Someone asked him: 'What did you do that?' Junaid said: 'I was bowing before his single-mindedness. For his aim, that man has given his life.
— Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe
When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.
— Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth
The would-be students wish to transcend books.But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he writes books; books do not contain Sufism, and yet he continues to publish books on Sufism, what is really happening? It really is your duty, and not mine, to ask and to find the answer to that question, if you are interested enough.
— Idries Shah, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study
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.
— Idries Shah, Reflections
Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.
— Idries Shah, The Sufis
Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
— C.S. Lewis
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.
— Maya Angelou
When a child first catches adults out -- when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just -- his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden
It's about a girl who is on the cusp of becoming someone.. A girl who may not know what she wants right now, and she may not know who she is right now, but who deserves the chance to find out.
— Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
Everyone thinks you make mistakes when you're young. But I don't think we make any fewer when we're grown up
— Jodi Picoult
You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls.
— J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.
— Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
For, after all, you do grow up, you do outgrow your ideals, which turn to dust and ashes, which are shattered into fragments; and if you have no other life, you just have to build one up out of these fragments. And all the time your soul is craving and longing for something else. And in vain does the dreamer rummage about in his old dreams, raking them over as though they were a heap of cinders, looking in these cinders for some spark, however tiny, to fan it into a flame so as to warm his chilled blood by it and revive in it all that he held so dear before, all that touched his heart, that made his blood course through his veins, that drew tears from his eyes, and that so splendidly deceived him!
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights and Other Stories
I got tired, I told him. Not worn out, but worn through. Like one of those wives who wakes up one morning and says I can't bake any more bread.You never bake bread, he wrote, and we were still joking.Then it's like I woke up and baked bread, I said, and we were joking even then. I wondered will there come a time when we won't be joking? And what would it look like? And how would that feel?When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder. Everything moved me. A dog following a stranger. That made me feel so much. A calender that showed the wrong month. I could have cried over it. I did. Where the smoke from the chimney ended. How an overturned bottle rested at the edge of a table.I spent my life learning to feel less.Every day I felt less.Is that growing old? Or is it something worse?You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.
— Jonathan Safran Foer
Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.
— Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
One of the oddest things about being grown-up was looking back at something you thought you knew and finding out the truth of it was completely different from what you had always believed.
— Patricia Briggs, Bone Crossed
Growing up is hard, love. Otherwise everyone would do it.
— Kim Harrison, Pale Demon
Maturity is when your world opens up and you realize that you are not the center of it.
— M.J. Croan
He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side.
— Emily Giffin, Love the One You're With
In increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss.
— John Irving, Until I Find You
As a child there's a horror in discovering the limitations of the ones you love. The time you find that your mother cannot keep you safe, that your tutor makes a mistake, that the wrong path must be taken because the grown-ups lack the strength to take the right one...each of those moments is the theft of your childhood, each of them a blow that kills some part of the child you were, leaving another part of the man exposed, a new creature, tougher but tempered with bitterness and disappointment.
— Mark  Lawrence, King of Thorns
You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.
— P.J. O'Rourke
As for the fact that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle apeared to be going their different ways when they were usually inseparable, these things happened as people got older--Ron and Hermione, Harry reflected sadly, were living proof.
— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
We’re not the Faster-than-the-Speed-of-Light Generation anymore. We’re not even the Next-New-Thing Generation. We’re the Soon-to-Be-Obsolete Kids, and we’ve crowded in here to hide from the future and the past. We know what’s up – the future looms straight ahead like a black wrought-iron gate and the past is charging after us like a badass Doberman, only this one doesn’t have any letup in him.
— Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now