“Self-mortification, far from producing liberation from material things, is far more likely to cause either an unhinged mind, delusions or a masochistic taste for more suffering, experienced, of course, as joy.”

“SOVEREIGNTYSovereignty is a wind of change. (Hariri)”

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

“If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.”

“To drown in treacle is just as unpleasant as to drown in mud.People today are in danger of drowning in information; but because they have been taught information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be.If they could handle information, they would not have to drown at all.The lightning said to the oak tree: 'Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!”

“Humility cannot be taught by propaganda, though slavery can. Shouting for humility is a form of arrogance. One of my most abiding recollections is of a priest at a religious occasion once roaring, in the most threatening way imaginable: ‘O our Lord God, we most humbly pray…!’Real humility is not always the same as apparent humility. Remember that fighting against self-conceit is still fighting: and that it will tend to suppress it temporarily. It does not cure anything.Remember, too, that humility itself does not bring an automatic reward: it is a means to an end. It enables a person to operate in a certain manner.”

“Hariri says, in his Maqamat: ‘Safety is on the river’s BANK.”

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

“Any society which enjoins its members to adhere to both of these (politeness and truth) is a fraud.”

“Sufism is, in operation, pragmatic.”

“Imagination blocks you like a bolt on a door. Burn that bar. (Rumi)”