Quotes by
Rumi |
Jalal al-Din Mohammad Rumi, 1207-1273 , Persian mystic & poet
The greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Mas̄navī-yi Maʿnavī (“Spiritual Couplets”). After his death, his disciples were organized as the Mawlawiyyah order. Rumi's works are written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic, and Greek.
| 90 quotes | 8,144 visits |
Quotations
| • | Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and twice as beautiful as you’d ever imagined. 17 |
| • | Without love, all worship is a burden, all dancing is a chore, all music is mere noise. 12 |
| • | You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop. 11 |
| • | One of the marvels of the world: The sight of a soul sitting in prison with the key in its hand. 11 |
| • | Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation. 10 |
| • | My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there. 8 |
| • | Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. 8 |
| • | The wound is the place where the Light enters you. 8 |
| • | Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon. How much it can fill your room depends on its windows. 7 |
| • | Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. 7 |
| • | Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself. 6 |
| • | Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that. 6 |
| • | Be an empty page, untouched by words. 6 |
| • | Achieve some perfection yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others. 6 |
| • | Wisdom tells us we are not worthy; love tells us we are. My life flows between the two. 6 |
| • | I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away. 6 |
| • | If reason dominates in man, he rises higher than angels. If lust overpowers man, he descends lower than the beast. 6 |
| • | It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. 5 |
| • | By God, when you see your beauty you will be the idol of yourself. 5 |
| • | When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray. 5 |
| • | If light is in your heart, you will find your way home. 5 |
| • | Look at the moon in the sky, not the one in the lake. 5 |
| • | Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you. 5 |
| • | In order to understand the dance you must be still. And in order to truly understand stillness you must dance. 5 |
| • | We came whirling out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust… The stars made a circle, and in the middle, we dance. 5 |
| • | Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you? 5 |
| • | You’ve seen my descent. Now watch my rising. 4 |
| • | I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think. 4 |
| • | Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love. 4 |
| • | What you seek is seeking you. 4 |
| • | Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment brings intuitive knowledge. 4 |
| • | Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. 4 |
| • | When someone beats a rug, the blows are not against the rug, but against the dust in it. 4 |
| • | The soul has been given its own ears to hear things mind does not understand. 4 |
| • | Don’t get lost in your pain, know that one day your pain will become your cure. 4 |
| • | You have forgotten the One who doesn’t care about ownership, who doesn’t try to turn a profit from every human exchange. 4 |
| • | The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you. 4 |
| • | I don’t want learning, or dignity, or respectability. I want this music, and this dawn, and the warmth of your cheek against mine. 3 |
| • | Wisdom and knowledge exist so we can distinguish right from wrong. 3 |
| • | Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop. 3 |
| • | In the blackest of your moments, wait with no fear. 3 |
| • | Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees. 3 |
| • | Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth. 3 |
| • | If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished? 3 |
| • | Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction. 3 |
| • | The lion is most handsome when looking for food. 3 |
| • | When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. 3 |
| • | Life is balance of holding on and letting go. 3 |
| • | Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place. 3 |
| • | The message behind the words is the voice of the heart. 3 |
| • | Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk. 3 |
| • | Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? 3 |
| • | Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls. 3 |
| • | All your anxiety is because of your desire for harmony. Seek disharmony, then you will gain peace. 3 |
| • | Laugh as much as you breathe. Love as long as you live. 3 |
| • | I am yours. Don’t give myself back to me. 3 |
| • | If you want money more than anything, you’ll be bought and sold your whole life. 3 |
| • | Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. 3 |
| • | How do I know who I am or where I am? How could a single wave locate itself in an ocean? 3 |
| • | There are many ways to the Divine. I have chosen the ways of song, dance, and laughter. 3 |
| • | I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God. 3 |
| • | If all you can do is crawl, start crawling. 2 |
| • | Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands, or your own genuine solitude? 2 |
| • | Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you. 2 |
| • | You know the value of every article of merchandise, but if you don’t know the value of your own soul, it’s all foolishness. 2 |
| • | Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. 2 |
| • | Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there. 2 |
| • | We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us. 2 |
| • | Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. 2 |
| • | Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are. 2 |
| • | You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life? 2 |
| • | The desire to know your own soul will end all other desires. 2 |
| • | Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. 2 |
| • | When you lose all sense of self, the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish. 2 |
| • | Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it. 2 |
| • | Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along. 2 |
| • | When you seek love with all your heart you shall find its echo in the universe. 2 |
| • | When you feel a peaceful joy, that’s when you are near truth. 2 |
| • | The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart. 2 |
| • | Love is the water of life, jump into this water. 2 |
| • | Listen to the sound of waves within you. 2 |
| • | We rarely hear the inward music, but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless. 2 |
| • | Dance where you can break yourself up to pieces and totally abandon your worldly passions. 2 |
| • | Looking up gives light, although at first it makes you dizzy. 2 |
| • | Each moment contains a hundred messages from God. 2 |
| • | Why, when God’s world is so big, did you fall asleep in a prison, of all places? 2 |
| • | God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one. 2 |
Quotes in Verse
| • | Doing as others told me, I was blind. Coming when others called me, I was lost. Then I left everyone, myself as well. Then I found everyone, myself as well. 8 |
| • | When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep. 6 |
| • | This is how it always is when I finish a poem. A great silence overcomes me and I wonder why I ever thought to use language. 4 |
