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"If you want to be a calligrapher, write, and write, and write."
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"You can read in the space of a coffin, and you can write in the space of a toolshed meant for mowers and spades."

"True dexterity is not just in books; It is giving from above, we learn it, it is nurtured, it is applied and it is developed. He who do not know what has been giving to him from above, shall never know how to use what he has been giving effectively and efficiently."

"If you dread ending up in the bunker, practice these tricky out-of-the-sand shots until you master them. Think of it as insurance-we all have learned that, once you know you can make that shot easily, you will seldom need to!"

"The skilled artisan uses the same iron to make a horseshoeAs he does for a polished mirror for the King."

"I have had an aversion to good spelling for sixty years and more, merely for the reason that when I was a boy there was not a thing I could do creditably except spell according to the book. It was a poor and mean distinction, and I early learned to disenjoy it. I suppose that this is because the ability to spell correctly is a talent, not an acquirement. There is some dignity about an acquirement, because it is a product of your own labor. It is earned, whereas to be able to do a thing merely by the grace of God, and not by your own effort, transfers the thing to our heavenly home--where possibly it is a matter of pride and satisfaction, but it leaves you naked and bankrupt."

"To be a better cook, cook more. To be a better writer, read more."

"To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph."

"A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will."
Explore more quotes by Idries Shah


"Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious."


"If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method."


"The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured."


"Religion, for instance, cannot be accepted or rejected out of hand, until the student knows exactly what religion means."
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