Omar Khayyám on Philosophy
1048–1131 Iran
← All quotes by Omar Khayyám
3 quotes
But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
I wouldn't have come had I had my say,
Nor would I leave Here if I had my way;
Ah, nothing better in this world could be
Than not to come, nor be, not go away.
Since Heaven increases nothing but our pain,
And gives naught that it takes not back again,
The unborn ne'er would hither come if they
But knew what we at Fortune's hands sustain.