sufis

One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...

In a village where everyone has only one leg, the biped will hop about more lamely than anyone else, if he knows what is good for him.

Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.

One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that giving or withholding is done by external assessment. If you seek some mark of favour or 'promotion', know that you are not ready for it. Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a real teacher.

You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the contact or the subject of the transaction) than you can in years of formal effort.

Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.

Assume that you are part-hypocrite and part heedless, and you will not be far wrong.

None should say: 'I can trust' or 'I cannot trust' until he is a master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.

Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction.

It is a Sufi contention that truth is not discovered or maintained by the mere repetition of teachings. It can only be kept understood by the perpetual experience of it. And it is in the experience of truth that the Sufis have always reposed their trust. 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'.

There is no wisdom where there is no common sense: it cannot under those conditions find any expression.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

To copy a virtue in another is more copying than it is virtue. Try to learn what that virtue is based upon.

You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to go, and you do know what that means.

If you cannot laugh frequently and genuinely, you have no soul.