sufism

Haste is from the Devil.

The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.

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

Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew.

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.

The Sufis are unanimous that a Guide (Sheikh) is absolutely essential, though never available on demand: 'the Sufis are not merchants'.

If the path has been laid down, why the successive appearance of different teachers? Why would anyone reinvent the wheel, if everything were as cosy and sequential as primitive longing so easily convinces us?

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

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'.