You make me a sinner if you stop me giving you hospitality.

— Idries Shah

You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.(Glisten)

— Idries Shah

You may have forgotten the Way: But those who came before Did not forget you. Saying of Master Bahrain Ashland of Bukhara

— Idries Shah

You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.

— Idries Shah

You must improve yourself on a higher level if you are to be able to help people, and not just weep over them.

— Idries Shah

Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.

— Idries Shah

You say that this society will come to an end, because societies always have done so. I wonder whether they have ended because they were not really societies at all.

— Idries Shah

You will always have doubts, but only discover them at a useful time for your weakness to point them out.

— Idries Shah

You will never reach Mecca, I fear: for you are on the road to Turkestan.

— Idries Shah

You yourself are your own barrier – rise from within it.

— Idries Shah