"People are always trying to understand.There is only one way to do that.It is to discover < + i + >why< + i + > you want to understand."

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

"Life: sometimes the man on the saddle, sometimes the saddle on the man."

"Man is not a being who stands still."

"We and all our existences are non-entities. Thou art the absolute being whose appearance is transitory."

"Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not."

"Whoever is to be wise despises himself. Only the ignorant trust their own judgement."

"MAGHRIBI: Learning is in activity. Learning through words alone is minor activity."

"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'."

"A loan is the scissors of friendship.A man's own tongue may cut his throat.The cage has no value without the bird."

"Sufism is education, in that it has a body of knowledge which it transmits to those who have not got it."

"Have the nature of a dervish: then wear a stylish cap."

"Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn."

"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?"

"Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being."

"A person's reality is determined by their thoughts."

"Sufi Teachers are not, as you might hope, people who make you feel peace and harmony."

"If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting."

"He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge."

"Definition of a SufiTo learn, people must give up a great deal, and this includes ritual as something from which they imagine they might learn. It is to emphasise this that Abu-Yaqub al-Susi, quoted in Kalabadhi's Taaruf, states that the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not."

"People talk about 'service, effort, love, knowledge'. But with knowledge you know what love is, and what it is not."

"Assume that you are part-hypocrite and part heedless, and you will not be far wrong."

"If you have two shirts, sell one and with the money buy a flower'."

"When the mind is full of established biases, it will not be able to graft Sufism on top of them."

"Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them."

"Sufis are not here to satisfy a demand. They exist to share what they have got. These two things are not always the same."

"You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person."

"When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'."

"He who sleeps on the Road will lose either his hat or his head."

"Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity."

"When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all."

"The bowl is warmer than the soup."

"With enough information, it is almost impossible "not" to predict people's action."

"Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise."

"...most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same."

"The Sufi attitude is: 'Let the real truth, whatever it may be, be revealed to me'."

"The more you look, the less you see."

"I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope."

"If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a real teacher."

"Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it."

"Sufism is, in operation, pragmatic."

"Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words."

"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'."

"Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal.Interesting people can find something interesting in all things."

"Day and NightThe night is long: do not shorten it by sleep. The day is fair: do not darken it with wrongdoing."

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

"Angels are the powers hidden in the faculties and organs of man."

"Those who can't, try: those who can, don't have to."

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

"Patience is bitter, but bears a sweet fruit."