Rumi Quotes

347 Sourced Quotes

Didn't I tell you
not to be satisfied with the veil of this world?
I am the master illusionist,
it is me, who is the welcoming banner at the gate of your contentment.

Rumi
Know the true definition of yourself. That is essential. Then, when you know your own definition, flee from it.

Rumi
This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

Rumi
The way the Beloved can fit in my heart, two thousand lives could fit in this body of mine. One kernel could contain a thousand bushels, and a hundred worlds pass through the eye of the needle.

Rumi
Pale sunlight, pale the wall. Love moves away. The light changes I need more grace than I thought.

Rumi
Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Rumi
The men of God are like fishes in the ocean; they pop up into view on the surface here and there and everywhere, as they please.

Rumi
When someone is counting out gold for you, don't look at your hands, or the gold. Look at the giver.

Rumi
I always thought that
I was me — but no,
I was you
and never knew it.

Rumi
The result of my life is not more than three words:
I was raw, I became ripe, I burnt—

Rumi
This that is tormented and very tired, tortured with restraints like a madman, this heart.

Rumi
Remember God so much that you are forgotten. Let the caller and the called disappear; be lost in the Call.

Rumi
The place that Solomon made to worship in,
called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth
and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom
and mystical conversation and compassionate action.

Rumi
Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

Rumi
When you see anyone complaining
of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper,
know that the complainant is bad-tempered,
forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person,
because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing
towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured.

Rumi
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.

Rumi
Oh, bird of my soul, fly away now, For I possess a hundred fortified towers.

Rumi
Every object and being in the universe is
a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty,
a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained
by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth
more shining, as though covered in satin.

Rumi
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask, it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright, you must do a little work.

Rumi
From Hallaj, I learned to hunt lions, but I became something hungrier than a lion.

Rumi
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.

Rumi
Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
every success depends upon focusing the heart.

Rumi
That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.

Rumi
Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!

Rumi
Lovers think they are looking for each other,
but there is only one search: wandering
This world is wandering that, both inside one
transparent sky. In here
there is no dogma and no heresy.

Rumi
Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of more invisible game.
Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo. You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheatfields and mountain passes, and orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding."
You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer.
There is no "other world." I only know what I've experienced. You must be hallucinating.

Rumi
Everyone is so afraid of death, but the real sufis just laugh: nothing tyrannizes their hearts. What strikes the oyster shell does not damage the pearl

Rumi
This dance is the joy of existence. I am filled with you.
Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul.
There's no room for lack of trust, or trust.
Nothing in this existence but that existence.

Rumi
There are thousands of wines that can take over our minds. Don't think all ecstasies are the same!

Rumi
This is the essence of all sciences - that you should know who you will be when the Day of Reckoning arrives.

Rumi