Rumi

Philosophy Persian 1207 – 1273 179 quotes

Greatest Sufi mystic poet

Most quoted

"Oh, soul, you worry too much. You have seen your own strength. You have seen your own beauty. You have seen your golden wings. Of anything less, why do you worry? You are in truth the soul of the soul, the pure, immaculate, and radiant soul."

— from The Essential Rumi

"Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear."

— from Masnavi, 1250

"Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear."

— from Discourses of Rumi

All quotes by Rumi (179)

Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

The source of my suffering is that I am not what I want to be and I am what I do not want to be.

Masnavi

Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries.

Masnavi

The intelligent desire self-control; children want candy.

Masnavi

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground; there are a thousand ways to go home again.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

The world is a mountain, and whatever you utter returns to you.

Masnavi

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.

Divan-e Shams 1240

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.

Divan-e Shams 1258

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

Divan-e Shams 1245

You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?

Masnavi 1273

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

Divan-e Shams 1260

The soul is here for its own joy.

Masnavi 1250

If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?

Divan-e Shams 1265

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

Masnavi 1258

Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.

Divan-e Shams 1273

When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias and the difference between them.

Masnavi 1245

Contemporaries of Rumi

Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Rumi (1207–1273).