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Tahir Shah QUOTES

Tahir Shah QUOTES

1 " My father used to tell me that stories offer the listener a chance to escape but, more importantly, he said, they provide people with a chance to maximize their minds. Suspend ordinary constraints, allow the imagination to be freed, and we are charged with the capability of heighetned thought.
Learn to use your eyes as if they are your ears, he said, and you become connected with the ancient heritage of man, a dream world for the waking mind. "

― Tahir Shah , In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams

2 " Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.

With such a book the impact isn't necessarily obvious at first...but the more you read it and re-read it, and live with it, and travel with it, the more it speaks to you, and the more you realize that you cannot live without that book. It's then that the wisdom hidden inside, the seed, is passed on. "

― Tahir Shah , Travels With Myself

3 " There comes a stage at which a man would rather die cleanly by a bullet than by the unknown terror of the phantom in the forest. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

4 " I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

5 " In the world of the Machiguenga, sadness could be equated with anger, and anger was a perilous emotion, by which a foreigner could lose his life. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

6 " Enlightenment, and the death which comes before it, is the primary business of Varanasi. "

― Tahir Shah , Sorcerer's Apprentice

7 " As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end. "

― Tahir Shah , Travels With Myself

8 " The quest for a lost city erodes your body, damaging you beyond all reason. But it is your mind that bears the heaviest toll. Listen to the doubters, the worriers and the weak, and the vaguest hope of success evaporates. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

9 " Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

10 " I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas. "

― Tahir Shah , In Search of King Solomon's Mines

11 " Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives. "

― Tahir Shah , In Search of King Solomon's Mines

12 " Time spent in India has a extraordinary effect on one. It acts as a barrier that makes the rest of the world seem unreal. "

― Tahir Shah , Beyond The Devil's Teeth

13 " The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

14 " The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

15 " There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone. "

― Tahir Shah , In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams

16 " Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat pee, no doubt from the adrenalin. However hard you wash, it won't come off. It smothers you, as your muscles become frozen with acid and your mind paralysed by despair. "

― Tahir Shah , In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams

17 " Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones. "

― Tahir Shah , House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City

18 " Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood. "

― Tahir Shah , Travels With Myself

19 " When I am about to embark on a difficult journey, I comfort myself by reading the accounts of the great nineteenth-century travellers, men like Stanley, Burton, Speke, Burckhardt and Barth. "

― Tahir Shah , In Search of King Solomon's Mines

20 " For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure. "

― Tahir Shah , Travels With Myself