428 quotes
The angel grew with knowledge, the beast with ignorance,
Man remained in dispute between them.
Sometimes knowledge draws him to the seventh heaven,
Sometimes ignorance drags him down, so that (he says) 'Come what will!'
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Every form you see has its archetype in the placeless world,
If the form perished, no matter, since its original is everlasting,
Every fair shape you have seen, every deep saying you have heard,
Be not cast down that it perished, for that is not so.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The world without that king is like a headless body;
Fold yourself turban-wise, round such a head.
Unless you are black, do not let the mirror go from your hand
The soul is your mirror, while the body is rust.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
This soul is a measure; how should the measure know
That it is receiving of spirit and conveying to dust?
Its task is to measure in restless love,
Taking from heaven above, scattering o’er earth below.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Take the cotton of evil suggestions from the mind’s ear,
That the heavenly voice from above may enter it,
That you may understand that riddle of His,
That you may be cognisant of that open secret.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
With muffled heads you cannot see,
You’ve wrapped your cloaks in folds about your heads and eyes,
Your sense of sight cannot see what before you lies.
The world’s eye man is; all the rest’s mere skin and shell,
A real eye’s he who strives his Friend to see right well.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Thou art a darling bosom friend, thou art always behind the secret veil,
Why dost thou make thy dwelling-place in this perishable abode,
Regard thine own state, go forth and journey
From the prison of the Formal world to the meadow of Ideas.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
He is the perfect world, yet He is single,
He holds in hand the writing of the whole of existence,
Wherefore all forms and colours of beauty cry out,
‘Good news! good news! lo! the spring is at hand!’
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
If the sun did not fare by foot and wing every night,
How would the world be illuminated at morning tide?
And if the salt water did not go up from the sea to the sky
Whence would the garden be quickened by river and rain?
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Thou mouldest of foul and fair the form of a man
That he may flee two leagues from the odour of foulness;
Thou mak’st him a morsel of dust that he may become pure herbage,
He is free from filth when Thou hast breathed into him a soul.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Thou, nearer to me than I to myself.
Attributed Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)
Pass over names and look to qualities
So that qualities may lead thee to essence;
The differences of sects arise from His names
When they pierce to His essence, they find His peace.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Jesus, son of Mary, went to heaven and his ass remained below,
I remain on the earth but my spirit has flown to the sky.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The Worker is hidden in the workshop,
Enter the workshop and behold him face to face;
Since a veil is drawn over the Worker by his work,
Apart from His work you cannot see Him.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
One day I was filled with longing
To behold in human form the splendours of the Friend,
To witness the ocean gathered up into a drop,
The sun compressed into a single atom.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Pants thy spirit to be gifted
With a deathless life,
Let it seek to be uplifted
O’er earth’s storm and strife.
Spurn its joys,—its ties dissever,
Hopes and fears divest;
Thus, aspire to live for ever,
Be for ever blest.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Thou wert a love-lorn nightingale among owls,
The scent of the rose-garden reached thee, and thou didst go to the rose-garden.
Thou didst suffer sore headache from this bitter ferment,
At last thou wentest to the tavern of eternity.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Why should a falcon not fly from the quarry towards the King
When it hears by drum and drum-stick the notice of 'Return?'
Why should not every Sufi begin to dance like a mote,
In the sun of eternity that it may deliver him from decay.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When, O spiritual one, thou hast become thy own fortune
Then, being thyself thy fortune, thou wilt never lose it
How, O fortunate one, cans't thou ever lose thyself
When thy real self is thy treasure and thy kingdom.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O brave friend, grasp His skirt,
Who is removed alike from the world above and below;
Who will abide with thee in the house and abroad
When thou lackest house and home
He will bring forth peace out of perturbations
And when thou art afflicted, will keep His promise.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)