Tahir Shah Quotes
Top 90 wise famous quotes and sayings by Tahir Shah
Tahir Shah Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Tahir Shah on Wise Famous Quotes.
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.
The situation was different in the jungle. Every inch of ground had to be earned, and was done so through much exertion with the blade.
The last thing we wanted was for the Machiguenga to be sad again. Sadness appeared to bring out their violence.
Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.
But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.
A journey of observation must leave as much as possible to chance. Random movement is the best plan for maximum observation
Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead.
I am all for curses and superstition, but there's a point at which they start getting in the way. That point had arrived.
Ours was not going to be a clone of the usual expeditions, oozing with sleekness. It was clear from the start that oddity was our advantage.
In the West we are driven by an extreme form of guilt
if you are not seen to be working like a dog, you're perceived as being slothful.
if you are not seen to be working like a dog, you're perceived as being slothful.
Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.
[T]hrough bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.
We may yearn for rustic detail and old-world charm, but those who have it set their minds on vinyl wallpaper, fitted carpets and all mod cons.
In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.
It was an awkward moment. We were burning down our host's house, a situation which any guest seeks to avoid.
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.
In some peculiar way, indeed, the rules were now beginning to seem quite logical. It was then I knew that I had been in India long enough.
Time spent in India has a extraordinary effect on one. It acts as a barrier that makes the rest of the world seem unreal.
Calcutta's the only city I know where you are actively encouraged to stop strangers at random for a quick chat.
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.
The model of publishing is changing and its happening right now, but most publishers are so frightened, they just dont know how to embrace it.
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.
As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.
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.
We had the kind of conversations that only great friends can ever share. They were touched with magic.
Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.
As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.
It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.
There are two ways to find a lost city. The first is to rely on luck alone, the second is to control all the information.
The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.
If hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of pleasure.
My father looked on in disbelief, overwhelmed that his son had been taught to eat glass and relish it.
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.
Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.
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.
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.
I was becoming addicted to Bombay. There was squalor and poverty, but I had begun to realise my good fortune and would never again forget it.
The porters could always be coaxed to continue a little further through driving rain by the mere suggestion of a Pot Noodle at the end.
Stories are not like the real world; they aren't held back by what we know is false or true. What's important is how a story makes you feel inside.
For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.