The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries ShahRead
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of aligning effort with one's circumstances and resources in order to achieve goals effectively.
Idries Shah highlights the futility of mismatching efforts and approaches to tasks based on an individual's nature or abilities. He suggests that for any objective, success hinges on using the correct amount and type of effort at the right moment, supported by the right people and resources. This wisdom implies that thoughtful consideration of context is far more important than a one-size-fits-all approach to work and achievement.
Themes
EffortSuccessWorkContextResources
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speaker might use this quote to encourage students to find the right strategies for their studies.
More from Idries Shah
All quotes →To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
Idries ShahRead
You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.
Idries ShahRead
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.
Idries ShahRead
To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them.
Idries ShahRead
The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.
Idries ShahRead
Similar quotes
I complained to Waki' about the weakness of my memorisation, _x000D_ _x000D_ So he instructed me to abandon disobedience;_x000D_ _x000D_ He informed me that knowledge is a light,_x000D_ _x000D_ And the light of Allah is not given to a sinner.
Al-ShafiiRead
God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don't let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
Time is the most valuable thing you have - and I'm not just talking about the minutes for which you're paid.
Eli BroadRead
Show your contempt for the problem and your concern for the person.
Jim RohnRead
It is easy enough to be virtuous When nothing tempts you to stray; When without or within No voice of sin Is luring your soul away. But it is only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire. For the soul that is worth the treasures of the earth is the soul that resists desire.
Ella Wheeler WilcoxRead
Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.
Robert CollierRead