Quotes from The Sufis

“It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“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, quote from The Sufis

“إن المتصوفة انتقلوا بالحضور الأنثوي للمرأة، روحيا وجسديا إلى الفضاء الجمالي، وأصبحت المرأة هي المجلى الأكمل للجمال الإلهي المطلق.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“The basic urge toward mysticism is never, in the unaltered man, clear enough to be recognized for what it is.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Lo Aparente es el Puente hacia lo Real’.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Take the wheat, not the measure in which it is contained”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Es necesario notar – dice Rumi – que cosas antagónicas trabajan juntas, aunque nominalmente sean opuestas.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Sufism is known by means of itself.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty — what difference does it make what your decisions are?”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“El camino de los sufis no puede ser comprendido valiéndose del intelecto o mediante el común aprendizaje a través de libros.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“He who is fortunately enlightened [the Sufi]
Knows that sophistry is from the devil and love from Adam.”
― Idries Shah, quote from 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, quote from The Sufis

“Aquel que es afortunadamente iluminado (el Sufi)
Sabe que la sofistería procede del diablo, y el amor de Adán.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“Según la enseñanza Sufi, no es posible entender la vida en su totalidad si se la analiza según los métodos utilizados en nuestra cotidianidad.”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

“The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real”
― Idries Shah, quote from The Sufis

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Popular quotes

“Aren't you embarrassed undressing in front of a queer?" Leonard said. "All you know, I might be sizing up your butthole."
"Just call me a tease.”
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― quote from I Married Adventure

“For the concept of the supplement - which here determines that of the representative image - harbors within itself two significations whose cohabitation is as strange as it is necessary. The supplement adds itself, it is a surplus, a plenitude enriching another plenitude, the fullest measure of presence. But the supplement supplements. It adds only to replace. It intervenes or insinuates itself in-the-place-of; if it fills, it is as one fills a void. If it represents and makes an image, it is by the anterior default of a presence. The sign is always the supplement of the thing itself. The supplement will always be the moving of the tongue or acting through the hands of others. In it everything is brought together: Progress as the possibility of perversion, regression toward an evil that is not natural and that adheres to the power of substitution, that permits us to absent ourselves and act by proxy, through the hands of others. Through the written. This substitution always has the form of the sign. The scandal is that the sign, the image, or the representer, become forces and make "the world move". Blindness to the supplement is the law. We must begin wherever we are and the thought of the trace, which cannot take the scent into account, has already taught of the trace, which cannot not take the scent into account, has already taught us that it was impossible to justify a point of departure absolutely, Wherever we are: in a text where we already believe ourselves to be.”
― Jacques Derrida, quote from Of Grammatology

“Power such as mine is only granted for one reason - to protect those with less, against yours."
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― Michelle Sagara West, quote from Into the Dark Lands

“From Lankaster to Lorenz, scientists have gotten it wrong. Parasites are complex, highly adapted creatures that are at the heart of the story of life. If there hadn't been such high walls dividing scientists who study life - the zoologists, the immunologists, the mathematical biologists, the ecologists - parasites might have been recognized sooner as not disgusting, or at least not merely disgusting. If parasites were so feeble, so lazy, how was it that they could manage to live inside every free-living species and infect billions of people? How could they change with time so that medicines that could once treat them became useless? How could parasites defy vaccines, which could corral brutal killers like smallpox and polio?”
― Carl Zimmer, quote from Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.