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Omar Khayyám Quotes

1048–1131 Iran

Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a Persian poet and polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and Persian literature. He was born in Nishapur, Iran and lived during the Seljuk era, around the time of the First Crusade.

Iran
Astronomers
Mathematicians
Philosophers
Physicists

Also known as: Khayyam, Omar, Khayyám, Omar, Omar Khayam, Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat of omar khayyam

Random Omar Khayyám quote

179 quotes

Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine
Must drown the memory of that insolence!

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes — or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two — is gone.

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

All mortal ken is bounded by the veil,
To see beyond man’s vision is too frail;
Yea! earth’s dark bosom is his only home;
Alas! ’twere long to tell the doleful tale.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

These fools by dint of ignorance most crass,
Think they in wisdom all mankind surpass;
And glibly do they damn as infidel
Each one who is not, like themselves, an ass.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Against death’s arrows what are bucklers worth?
What all the pomps and riches of the earth?
When I survey the world I see no good
But goodness, all beside is nothing worth.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Bulbuls doting on roses oft complain
How froward breezes rend their veils in twain
Sit we beneath this rose which many a time
Has sprung from earth and dropped to earth again.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

When the fair spirit doth this house vacate,
Each element resumes its primal state
And these four strands of life, like threads of silk
Are all unravelled by the blows of fate.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Pagodas like as mosques are homes of prayer,
’Tis prayer that church-bells chime into the air;
Yea, church and ka’ba, rosary and cross
Are all but divers tongues of world-wide prayer.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Allah, perchance, the secret word might spell;
If Allah be, He keeps His secret well;
What He hath hidden, who shall hope to find?
Shall God His secret to a maggot tell?

Le Gallienne, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1897)

After a momentary silence spake
Some Vessel of a more ungainly Make;
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry:
What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

Yet Ah, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

But Here or There as strikes the Player goes.

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

One Flash of It within the Tavern caught.

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake.

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

Said one among them — "Surely not in vain
My substance of the common Earth was ta'en
And to this Figure moulded, to be broke,
Or trampled back to shapeless Earth again."

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

Like tulips in the spring your cups lift up
And with a tulip-cheeked companion sup
With joy your wine, or e’er this azure wheel
With some unlooked for blast upset your cup.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Man cannot change what pen hath writ of yore,
Diet of sorrow breedeth heart-pang sore;
Spend thy whole life in shedding tears of blood,
Thou can’st not add one tear-drop to thy store.

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

What! from his helpless Creature be repaid
Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-allay'd —
Sue for a Debt he never did contract,
And cannot answer — Oh, the sorry trade!

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

Thou wilt not with Predestined Evil round
Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin!

FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)

Attribution

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