Skip to content

Every night spirits are released from this cage (the body)
And set free, neither lording it nor lorded over,
At night prisoners are unaware of their prison,
At night kings are unaware of their majesty,
Then there is no thought or care for loss or gain,
No regard to such an one or such an one,
The state of the ‘knower’ is such as this even when awake
God says ‘Thou would’st deem him awake though asleep,’
Sleeping to the affairs of the world day and night
Like a pen in the directing hand of the writer.

— Rumi Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Another quote →

More quotes by Rumi

Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
Every success depends upon focusing the heart.

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.

The branch might seem like the fruit's origin:
In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit.

If you wish to shine like day, burn up the night of self-existence. Dissolve in the Being who is everything.

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.

All Rumi quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Rumi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.