Skip to content

Quotes from A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations — Hafez

1315–1390

← All quotes by Hafez

30 quotes

Wash from the dross of life thy hands as the Path’s men of old
And, winning love’s alchemic power, transmute thyself to gold.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Thy curl is ever drawing the heart silently
Who hath power to speak (quarrel) with Thy heart-vanishing curl.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

What holds in peace this two-fold world, let this two-fold sentence show
Amity to every friend, courtesy to every foe.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Profit by companionship; this two-doored house (i.e., life) forsaken,
No pathway that can thither lead in future time is taken.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Slight me not zealot, go thou hence ashamed
For naught is slight that has by God been framed.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Like are, if void of purity, the k‘aba and the idle-fane
The house that has not chastity can in its walls no good contain.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Be misery thy portion here, O Sage, or be it bliss
Refer it not to other men: ’tis God who orders this.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Learn meekness from the shell in ocean’s bed
And pearls on one who wounds thy head bestow.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Though many a rose in this garden is born
No mortal who culls one escapes from the thorn.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The meshes of the net are strong but God withholds His grace from none,
Not otherwise could man prevail o’er Satan the stone-pelted one.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Enjoy! ’twixt lip and mouth the bounds as nothing are
If humbled, care not; as the rose be gay,
Life’s honours which pass soon away, as nothing are.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

I have shut my eye like a falcon to all the world
Since my (inward) eye is open to thy beauteous countenance.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Reckon as plunder the path of profligacy. For this track
Like the path to the hidden treasure is not evident to every one.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

If by the Holy Spirit’s grace the gift again be won
The works which the Messias wrought by others may be done.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Come! hear of those who have felt sorrow’s touch
Their words are few, but what they mean is much.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

High birth may be a pearl of lustre, but let thine effort be
To rise by deeds. Distinct is greatness from birth and pedigree.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

O partridge, bird of graceful gait, say whether wouldst thou shape thy way?
Be not so bold, for well we know how the religious cat can pray.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

How well said the aged farmer to his son,
O light of my eyes, thou wilt not reap save that which thou hast sown.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Opportunity flies, O brother,
As the cloud that quick doth pass;
Oh make use of it! life is precious
If we let it go,—alas!

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

If it is thy desire that the Beloved should not break the covenant,
Keep thy end of the thread that He may keep his end.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Hafez (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.