Idries Shah, A Perfumed Scorpion Quotes

Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.

Knowledge gives nothing to a man until he gives everything to it.

Patience is the food of understanding.

The Sufi must be able to alternate his thought between the relative and the Absolute, the approximate and the Real.

Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience it and you will know'.

A Sufi has a right to be served, but he has no right to demand. Maruf Karkhi of Khorasan

Rumi himself once said that counterfeit gold is only to be found because there is such a thing as real gold to be copied.

Whoever might perfume a scorpionWill not thereby escape its sting. Bahaudin Naqshband