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He was not chaff which flew on the wind,
He was not water which froze in winter,
He was not a comb which was broken with a hair,
He was not a seed with the earth crushed,
He was a treasure of gold in this dust-pit,
For he valued the two worlds at a barley corn,
The earthly frame he flung to the earth,
Soul and intellect he bore to heaven,
The pure elixir mingled with the wine-dregs,
Came to the jar’s surface, and the lees settled apart.
The second soul, which the vulgar know not,
I protest by God that he surrendered to the Beloved.

— Rumi Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

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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.

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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.