The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries ShahRead
To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding a problem requires recognizing multiple perspectives beyond just two.
The quote by Idries Shah suggests that when addressing a problem, merely considering two opposing viewpoints can hinder true understanding and resolution. Instead, it emphasizes that every issue typically encompasses a range of perspectives, complexities, and nuances that must be acknowledged to arrive at a comprehensive solution.
Themes
PerspectiveUnderstandingProblem-SolvingComplexitySolution
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about policy changes, one might use this quote to encourage discussion beyond binary arguments.
More from Idries Shah
All quotes βYou 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
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.
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
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What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, its filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek.
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As we have seen, the wireless and the airplane have made the world so small and nations so dependent on each other that the only alternative to war is the United States of the World.
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There is nothing like death to say what is always such an artificial thing to say: The End.
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Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone (considered) work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking.
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