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.”

“The very fact that a Frenchman was prepared, after tow minutes of conversation, to be so friendly towards anyone, especially one who had come from England, made me restless.”

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

“In Morocco," said Osman, "word spreads like a fire tearing through the depths of Hell.”

“Moroccan traffic isn't like normal traffic. It's armed combat, a war of wills, in which only the very bravest have a chance to survive.”

“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.”

“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 India everything has a use and a value.”

“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.”

“Back at the guest house I tried to acclimatise. A travel-worn adventurer had once told me that leaning with one's head dangling over the end of a bed was the best way to achieve this. It was while I was in this position, the blood rushing to my temples, that the door swung open.”

“Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a most amazing journey:The sages who have compassed sea and land,Their secret to search out and understand,My mind misgives me if they ever solveThe scheme on which the universe is planned.”

“The ancient paused for a moment, as if his strength were failing. Yet I sensed that there was more to tell. Looking deep into my eyes, he whispered: 'The Gond kingdoms have fallen, their people live dispersed in poverty: the teak trees and the jungles have been cleared... but the importance of the Gonds must not be forgotten!”

“The ants are bad" The Bear"the ants?"Tahir"Do 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.”

“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.”

“To be selfless, you would give charity anonymously, walj softly on the earth, and look out for others-even total strangers-before you look out for yourself. For the Arab mind, the self is an obstacle, an impediment, in humanity's quest foe real progress.”

“To Succeed, you must reach for the stars, and let your imagination find its own path”

“I'm a fool, that I should simply trick the tourists like everyone else. after all, most of them will never come back. and what are tourists for but for tricking?”

“You have no idea. when you're a salesman here in Marrakech medima, lying is the first thing you learn. generation after generation, they pass it on. its the secret ingredient the foundationfor a salesman's success. lie well and you make a fortune every day. your wife purrs like a kitten, and your children ealk tall with pride.”

“Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart.”

“What came next was a new experience for for both the fish and me”

“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.”

“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?”

“Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship.”

“It was an awkward moment. We were burning down our host's house, a situation which any guest seeks to avoid.”

“I am all for curses and superstition, but there's a point at which they start getting in the way. That point had arrived.”

“There's nothing like a pack of mules to give one a sense of entourage.”

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

“Money spent on good-quality gear is always money well spent.”

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

“The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.”

“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.”

“[T]hrough bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.”

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

“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.”

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

“I had learned years ago never to give original documents to anyone if I could help it.”

“Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.”

“In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.”

“As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.”

“None of them seemed to mind sliding around in the faeces and choking in the smoke. They were determined not to miss the opportunity of watching a foreigner make a fool of himself.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.”

“The ability to tell a good route from a terrible one is a valuable skill when leading an expedition. Unfortunately for us all, it was a skill I did not possess.”

“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.”