41 quotes
This circle of the universe resembles a ring,
Unquestionably we are the signet engraved on its bezel.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Allah hath promised wine in Paradise,
Why then is wine on earth declared a vice.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Man is a cup, his soul the wine therein,
Flesh is a pipe, spirit the voice therein,
O Khayyam have you fathomed what man is?
A magic lantern with a light therein.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When seeking love, pay court to every heart,
When once admitted, seek the perfect heart
A hundred ka’bas equal not one heart;
eek not the ka’ba, rather seek the heart.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Is a friend faithless? Spurn him as a foe,
But on trustworthy foes respect bestow,
Hold healing poison for an antidote,
And baneful sweets for deadly eisel know.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
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)
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)
There is a chalice made with art profound,
And with its Maker’s approbation crowned,
Yet the world’s Potter takes His masterpiece
And dashes it to pieces on the ground.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Suppose the world goes well with you, what then?
When life’s last page is read and turned, what then?
Suppose you live a hundred years of bliss
Yea, and a hundred more to boot, what then?
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
My critics call me a philosopher
But Allah knows full well they greatly err,
I know not even what I am, much less
What is the reason that I sojourn here.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O Thou who givest sight to emmet’s eyes
And strength to feeble limbs of puny flies
To Thee we will ascribe omnipotence
No meaner attribute to Thee applies.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Since all we gain in this abode of woe
Is sorrow’s pangs to feel and grief to know,
Happy are they that never come at all,
And they, that, having come, the soonest go.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
For him that’s good my very life I’d sell,
Yea, though he trod me down, I’d count it well,
Men say ‘Inform us what and where is hell?’
Bad company will make this earth a hell.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
If you seek Him, abandon child and wife,
Forsake and sever all these ties to life;
All these are bonds that check your upward course,
Arise and cut these bonds as with a knife.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)