Tahir Shah Quotes

For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.

~ Tahir Shah

At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held it up, told him I was not a tourist and demanded a large discount.

~ Tahir Shah

The ants are bad The Bearthe ants?TahirDo not be fooled. They look very small, so harm you don't think of then at all. Then years. Then one day you wake up, and your home has fallen down. Osman.

~ Tahir Shah

A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.

~ Tahir Shah

Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?

~ Tahir Shah

The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

~ Tahir Shah

A man who embarks on a journey must know when to end it.

~ Tahir Shah

Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.

~ Tahir Shah

Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead.

~ Tahir Shah

There's nothing quite like a good quest for getting your blood pumping.

~ Tahir Shah

As far as Samson was concerned I was just another foreigner in pursuit of a lunatic quest.

~ Tahir Shah

The only thing they valued higher than ammunition were Man United footballs.

~ Tahir Shah

In India everything has a use and a value.

~ Tahir Shah

Stories are a communal currency of humanity.

~ Tahir Shah

My father never told us how the stories worked. He didn't reveal the layers, the nuggets of information, the fragments of truth and fantasy. He didn't need to -- because, given the right conditions, the stories activated, sowing themselves.

~ Tahir Shah

Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.

~ Tahir Shah

But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.

~ Tahir Shah

The Occident has never found it easy to grasp the strange netherworld of spirits that followers of Islam universally believe exist in a realm overlaid our own.

~ Tahir Shah

Venture to a remote corner of a faraway land and, from the moment you get there, every person and every thing becomes an obstacle, designed to entrap you, to stop you proceeding on your way.

~ Tahir Shah

The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.

~ Tahir Shah

An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems.

~ Tahir Shah

With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.

~ Tahir Shah

The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.

~ Tahir Shah

In any case, a little danger is a small price to pay for ridding a place of tourists.

~ Tahir Shah

As far as I was concerned, a little danger of head-shrinking is a small price to pay in return for a people who have remained true to an ancient code.

~ Tahir Shah

As the man was bundled into an armoured police van, he turned and shouted: ‘Don’t waste your life following others! Be individual! Live your dreams!’I stood there thinking. He was right. Ours is a society of followers, trapped by an island mentality.

~ Tahir Shah

Visit Cape Town and history is never far from your grasp. It lingers in the air, a scent on the breezy, an explanation of circumstance that shaped the Rainbow People. Stroll around the old downtown and it's impossible not to be affected by the trials and tribulations of the struggle. But, in many ways, it is the sense of triumph in the face of such adversity that makes the experience all the more poignant.

~ Tahir Shah

As I see the world, there's one element that's even more corrosive than missionaries: tourists. It's not that I feel above them in any way, but that the very places they patronize are destroyed by their affection.

~ Tahir Shah

Because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we all have become lazy. Lazy people are like cancer. They spread. Before you know it, the entire country is destroyed.

~ Tahir Shah

There is nothing like a train journey for reflection.

~ Tahir Shah

The pursuit of illusion is not about studying for prizes, or for study's sake. There's no right or wrong, no pass or fail.

~ Tahir Shah

My father looked on in disbelief, overwhelmed that his son had been taught to eat glass and relish it.

~ Tahir Shah

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

~ Tahir Shah

At the last moment, the fish and I exchange a troubled glance. The murrel seems to be demanding an explanation. Alas, I am in no position to start justifying the unusual treatment. What comes next is a new experience for both the fish and me.

~ Tahir Shah

Prideep pointed to the flames of paraffin lamps as they came alive in the distance and cackled in awe at the experience. (…) I was to discover that making tasty soup with one carrot, ten peas and a little dishwater, was his greatest skill. One wondered what the man would be capable of creating with a blender and a non-stick frying-pan.

~ Tahir Shah

Bombay is a city where gossip is treated as a commodity.

~ Tahir Shah

Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.

~ Tahir Shah

These days no one challenges us,' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy.

~ Tahir Shah

During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.

~ Tahir Shah

The first few hours in the cell were quite stimulating. I'd never been in a prison cell before and was quite enjoying the experience.

~ Tahir Shah