Idries Shah Quotes

It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

The ass bears the load, but not the overload.

Bolivar cannot carry double

It's enough to make a small shift within and a small action in the world. Collectively these have a huge effect.

Every drop in the ocean counts.

I've always been interested in public health approaches because it seems to me we have this yearning for silver bullets, and that is not in fact how change comes about. Change comes through silver buckshot - a lot of little things that achieve results. That's a classic public health approach.

Confidence-building is not something that can go on forever. If it goes on forever then it becomes counterproductive.

The dinosaur's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better.

We already have many of the technologies and tools that we need to build a sustainable future. What we don't have is a new way of thinking, and that's really the hardest part.

No human being shall be burdened with more than he is well able to bear.

This paradigm that says we have to choose industry over the environment or the environment over industry is the old way of thinking.

No one thing can change the face of any sector.

Inside the boundaries of the old paradigm there's no hope, there's no way out of the box of capitalism, monogamy, consumer fetishism, egoism, money worship, no way out. No way. No way out!

The Armful For every parcel I stoop down to seize I lose some other off my arms and knees, And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns, Extremes too hard to comprehend at. once Yet nothing I should care to leave behind. With all I have to hold with hand and mind And heart, if need be, I will do my best. To keep their building balanced at my breast. I crouch down to prevent them as they fall; Then sit down in the middle of them all. I had to drop the armful in the road And try to stack them in a better load.

There is such a thing as having too much of a good thing.

When many little people in many little places do many little things, then the whole world changes.

Another world is possible!' ... Another world is also necessary, for this one is unjust, unsustainable, and unsafe. It's up to us to envision, fight for, and create that world, a world of freedom, real justice, balance, and shared abundance, a world woven in a new design.

I think any show has the potential to bring about social change. I do not think any one show in isolation can do it. I think it is a groundswell that needs to continue to be bolstered from all ends.

New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization...We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal.

The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death.

The following doodle: a girl with pigtails is bent under the weight of a gigantic boulder. Her cheeks puff out, and her rounded lips expel steam. One widening steam cloud contains the word Pressure, darkly retraced.

If you think that one individual can't make a difference in the world, consider what one cigar can do in a nine-room house.

Allow not nature more than nature needs.

We can't just tack on environmental balance to a fundamentally imbalanced system.