A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work. (Hafiz)

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.

Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.

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

If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.

The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate.

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

Imagination blocks you like a bolt on a door. Burn that bar. (Rumi)

Sufis (the name for the realised individual, not the learner or follower) are reunited with objective Reality and Unity.

Leave Dad alone" I told Aislinn. "His Britishness is sort-circuiting.

Basic research is to work at the very edge, the very border of, of knowledge, and move that border forward. You look and look for new secrets, and you don't know where it's going to lead you.

If you have stumbled or even been lost for a time, you can move forward with faith and not wander to and fro in the world any longer.

I've never done anything by halves.

I had no intention of becoming an academic. How could a person who was having trouble reading become an academic?

Old people think young people haven't learned about love. Young people think old people have forgotten about love.

I don't have this fantasy about marriage anymore. Everyone says it takes hard work. Well, it kind of does - and I'm much more pragmatic about romance than I used to be.

A man's legacy is determined by how the story ends.

The second, sober thought of the people is seldom wrong, and always efficient.

By that sin fell the angels.