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Quotes from A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations — Rumi

1207–1273 Afghanistan

← All quotes by Rumi

340 quotes

We are pieces of steel, and Thy love is the magnet,
Thou art the source of all inspiration, in myself I have seen none.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Love carried off as plunder the chattels which we possessed,
We are independent of profit and loss and market.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

What pearl art thou that none possesseth the price of thee?
What does the world possess that is not thy gift?

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Ah! many are the conditions which at first are hard,
But are afterwards relieved and lose their harshness
Oftentimes hope succeeds to hopelessness
Many times does sunlight succeed to darkness.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Thought is an arrow shot by God into the air
How can it stay in the air? It returns to God.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Why should setting be injurious to the sun and moon?
To thee it seems a setting, but ’tis a rising;
Tho’ the vault seems a prison, ’tis the release of the soul.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Night and day comes a winged arrow from the hidden bow,
Yield up your sweet life; what can you do? you have no shield.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

For love of our Almighty God, the Lord of all,
Who would not die; a stock, a block, we needs must call.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Jesus, thy spirit, is present beside thee,
Ask aid of Him for He is a sufficient helper.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Union exists beyond all thought and speech
Between great Allah and the soul of each.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

What seed went down into the earth but it grew,
Why this doubt of thine as regards the seed of man?

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The moon sheds her light and the dogs howl;
Everyone acts according to his nature,
To each his office is allotted by the divine decree.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

I am sweet-smiling Jesus by whom the world is revived,
But my lineage is from God: I know nought of Mary.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Argue not from the condition of common men,
Stumble not at severity and mercy;
For mercy and severity, joy and sorrow are transient
And transient things die; God is heir of all.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

When the spirit lovingly embraces Thee,
In Thy presence all images become spirit.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The majority of those in Paradise are the simple
Who have escaped the snares of philosophy.
Strip yourself bare of overweening intellect
That grace may ever be shed upon you from above.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

‘Qh heart,’ said I, ‘may it bless thee
To have entered the circle of lovers,
To look beyond the range of the eye
To penetrate the windings of the bosom.’

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Ah! make not thyself a eunuch, become not a monk,
Because chastity is mortgaged to lust.
Without lust, denial of lust is impossible,
No man can display bravery against the dead.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

The bodies of the righteous are as pure souls
Their words, their actions, their praises
Are all as a pure soul without spot or blemish.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Look not in the world for bliss and fortune, since thou wilt not find them,
Seek bliss in both worlds by serving Him.

Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Attribution

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