Idries Shah Quotes

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.

I want to do my hard dives really well, I want to see what my true potential in this sport really is. I want to grasp that.

We must get to the point in our lives. What is the point? To become a new kind of man or woman, having inner command and outer excellence.

He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty" - Lao-tsu One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.

There is a canyon of difference between doing your best to glorify God and doing whatever it takes to glorify yourself. The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish.

Francisco could do anything he undertook, he could do it better than anyone else, and he did it without effort. There was no boasting in his manner and consciousness, no thought of comparison. His attitude was not: 'I can do it better than you,' but simply: 'I can do it.' What he meant by doing was doing superlatively.

By understanding the nuances of the world around you and how to survive the temptations, you can rule anything. Even yourself

It's your unlimited power to care and to love that can make the biggest difference in the quality of your life.

The foundation of lasting self-confidence and self esteem is excellence, mastery of your work.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.

Turmoil is a call for awakening. Every challenge, great or small, is moving you to look deeper and draw forth the highest in you. You're never given a challenge beyond your ability to meet and master. You'll rise above every circumstance because you're greater than any circumstance.

A disciple asked, "Who is a Master?" The Master replied, "Anyone to whom it is given to let go of the ego. Such a person's life is then a masterpiece.

You must climb above yourself-up and beyond, until you have even your stars under you.

Excellence, to me, is the state of grace that can descend only when one tunes out all the world's clamor, listens to an inward voice one recognizes as wiser than one's own, and transcribes without fear.

The spirit of a person's life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing fragrance upon the air.

It's very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.

Vain indeed is all overweening pride in the conquest even of the entire universe if one has not conquered one's own passions.

Real success is success with self. It's not in having things, but in having mastery, having victory over self.

Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.

And now run the race which is set before thee, in the royal way of universal love.

A man is a man to the extent that he is a superman. A man should be defined by the sum of those tendencies which impel him to surpass the human condition.

Something happens to me when I witness someone's courage. They may not know I'm watching and I might not let them know. But something happens to me that will last me for a lifetime. To fill me when I'm empty, and rock me when I'm low.

The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures. Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women.