Skip to content

Quotes from A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations — Rumi

1207–1273 Afghanistan

← All quotes by Rumi

340 quotes

God drops into the heart a single pearl-drop
Which is not bestowed on oceans or skies.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Place a padlock on your throat and hide the key.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The head whose reason has fled is a tail.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Till the corn be ground with the mill, how can our table be furnished with bread?

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body,
Yet no man hath ever seen a soul.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Thou didst sow the seed of deceit, thou didst indulge in derision,
Thou didst regard God as nothing: see now, O miscreant!

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The people of love are hidden among the peoples
As a liberal encompassed by the contumely of the base.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Seek sweet syrup in the garden of love,
For nature is a seller of vinegar and a crusher of unripened grapes.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Serpents’ poison is life to serpents,
In relation to mankind it is death.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

With thee how should we be afraid of loss
O thou, who turnest every loss to gain.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Why does not the soul take wing when from the glorious presence
A speech of sweet favour comes to it saying, 'Aloft!'

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

It behoves not, son, to beat a drum under a quilt,
Plant like brave men, thy banner in the midst of the desert.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

They say ‘What is love?’ Say ‘renunciation of will’
Whoso has not escaped from will, no will has he.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Sensual desire is a bridle and men are as camels
Do not suppose there is any bridle except that for the senseless camel.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The soul resembles day and the body night and we in the middle
Are like the dawn between oar own day and night.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The bough’s attraction drew the sap from root to summit,
Even as attraction draws the soul upward without a ladder.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

All creatures are enslaved to thought,
For this cause are they sad at heart and sorrowful.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Only in the night the moon shines,
Only in pain of heart seek the Beloved.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

All hearts are the abodes of devils
Be not deceived by devil-men.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Your heart is as Solomon’s signet; take care
That it falls not a prey to demons.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Attribution

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