Rumi Quotes & Sayings

There is some kiss we want with the whole of our lives. — Rumi

A woman is a beam of the divine light
she is not the being whom sensual
desire takes as it's object
she is a creator it should be said
she is not a creature
she is infinite love
can find all this — Rumi

A lover's life lies in death. You shall not find a heart without losing the heart. — Rumi

When love itself comes to kiss you, don't hold back! — Rumi

Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation. — Rumi

There's courage involved if you want to become Truth. — Rumi

A fool came and sat in a seat above one of the great saints. What difference does it make to the saints whether such a person is above or below the lamp? If the lamp wants to be on high, it does not desire that for its own sake. Its purpose is for the benefit of others, so they can enjoy their share of the light. Wherever the lamp may be, whether below or above, it is still the lamp of the Eternal Sun. — Rumi

Advice doesn't help lovers!
They're not the kind of mountain stream
you can build a dam across. — Rumi

In Winter the bare boughs that seem to sleep Work covertly, preparing for their Spring. — Rumi

I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God. — Rumi

Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden. I will meet you there. — Rumi

No One in the Entire World is as Precious as You are. — Rumi

THE LEVEL OF WORDS
God has said, "The images that come with human language do not correspond to me,
but those who love words must use them to come near."
Just remember, it's
like saying of the king, "He is not a weaver." Is that praise? Whatever such
a statement is, words are on THAT level of God-knowing. — Rumi

You know the value of every article of merchandise, but if you don't know the value of your own soul, it's all foolishness. — Rumi

I saw many humans on whom there were no clothes. I saw many clothes in which there were no humans. — Rumi

Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it's a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame's core. — Rumi

Tie two birds together. They will not be able to fly, even though they now have four wings. — Rumi

Keep on knocking 'til the joy inside opens a window look to see who's there — Rumi

The quiter you become, the more able you are to hear — Rumi

If you love someone, you are always joined with them
in joy, in absence, in solitude, in strife. — Rumi

We have been secretly fed
from beyond space and time. That's why we look for something more than this. — Rumi

The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart — Rumi

No more words. Hear only the voice within. — Rumi

From the viewpoint of reality, all the senses see one thing, but from the standpoint of outward form they are each different from the other. When one sense is moved to absorption, all the senses become absorbed in it.
Absorption is such that whoever enters it is no longer there. They make no more efforts, they cease to act and move. They are immersed in the water. No action is their action; it is the action of the water. But if they flail about in the water with their hands and feet, they are not truly submerged. If they utter a cry, "I am drowning," this too is not absorption. — Rumi

I cannot sleep in your presence In your absence, tears prevent me you watch me my beloved on each sleepiness night and Only you see the difference — Rumi

Look what they've done to me;
I am disheveled, bewildered, confused.
Now please take my hand.
I am wandering about,
in awe and amazement of you.
Take my hand.
Everyone
has someone to take care for them.
But look at me: I have no one.
Take my hand — Rumi

When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert! — Rumi

Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation. — Rumi

Love is the reality, and poetry is the drum. — Rumi

Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue. If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness of mind, that is illumination of heart. — Rumi

Dance when you're perfectly free. — Rumi

He who tastes not, knows not. — Rumi

I am the glorious sun, the ocean laden with pearls. Within my heart is the grandeur of heaven. — Rumi

The source is within you. And this whole world is springing up from it. — Rumi

Oh soul, you worry too much. Your arms are heavy with treasures of all kinds. — Rumi

When you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes
In the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you
There's no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower. — Rumi

All your anxiety is because of your desire for harmony. Seek disharmony, then you will gain peace. — Rumi

Live in the nowhere that you come from
even though you have got an address Here. — Rumi

Stop looking for something out there and begin seeing within. — Rumi

When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you will keep saying again and again, this is certainly not like we thought it was. — Rumi

To love is human. To feel pain is human. Yet to still love despite the pain is pure angel. — Rumi

When water is still like a mirror it can behold the Moon. — Rumi

You try to be faithful
And sometimes you're cruel.
You are mine. Then, you leave.
Without you, I can't cope.
And when you take the lead,
I become your footstep.
Your absence leaves a void.
Without you, I can't cope.
You have disturbed my sleep,
You have wrecked my image.
You have set me apart.
Without you, I can't cope. — Rumi

Peaceful is the one who's not concerned with having more or less.
Unbound by name and fame, he is free from sorrow from the world and mostly from himself. — Rumi

Angels dance only with You, Beloved
and only before You do I bow in adoration.
You may accept me or not but I will be at your feet forever. — Rumi

Fasting blinds the body in order to open the eyes of your soul. — Rumi

The source of now is here. — Rumi

You might get clever and say, "My doubting God's existence was willed by God." Only half true. You also chose to doubt. — Rumi

Though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are. — Rumi

Even though you're not equipped, keep searching: equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord. — Rumi

Hear from the heart wordless mysteries. — Rumi

That infinite world is a subtle world and does not reveal itself openly - yet look how wonderfully it makes its appearance here! Don't you see how the spring breeze becomes visible in the trees and grasses, the rose-beds and sweet herbs? Through the swaying of fields and flowers you witness the beauty of spring. But when you look upon the breeze itself, you see nothing. This isn't because the beauty of those rose-beds are outside the reality of the breeze, for the spring breeze contains images of swaying rose-beds and sweet herbs, but those images are subtle and invisible. Only through some medium are they revealed out of their subtlety. — Rumi

The world is like a courtroom, with God as our judge. We are called upon to fulfill our covenant with God, who asked, "Am I not your Lord?" To which we answered, "Yea." And since here on earth we are on trial, our every word and action form the witness to and the evidence of that agreement. — Rumi

I eliminated duality with joyous laughter
Saw the unity of here and the hereafter
Unity is what I sing, unity is what I speak
Unity is what I know, unity is what I seek — Rumi

I do not know who lives here in my chest, or why the smile comes. I am not myself, more the bare green knob of a rose that lost every leaf and petal to the morning wind. — Rumi

We often need to be refreshed. — Rumi

Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out. — Rumi

I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think. — Rumi

Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.
One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experience the animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk.
A water-pipe kind of creature.
Another, the ear. A strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal. Another, the leg.
I find it still, like a column on a temple.
Another touches the curve back.
A leathery throne. Another, the cleverest,
feels the tusk. A rounded sword made of porcelain.
He is proud of his description.
Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole in that way.
The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark
are how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.
If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together, we could see it. — Rumi

The lovers of God have no religion but God alone. — Rumi

O my choice beauty You've gone But your love remains in my heart Your image in my eye O guide on my winding road I keep turning round and round in the hopes of Finding you — Rumi

The moon stays bright when it doesn't avoid the night. — Rumi

What I had thought of before as God, I met today in a human being. — Rumi

The mind says there is nothing beyond the physical world; the HEART says there is, and I've been there many times. — Rumi

Clean out your ears, don't listen for what you already know. — Rumi

The work of magic is this, that it breathes and at every breath transforms realities. — Rumi

If someone asks,
But what is Love?
Answer,
Dissolving the will. — Rumi

Now be silent. Let the One who creates the words speak. He made the door. He made the lock. He also made the key. — Rumi

How do I know who I am or where I am? How could a single wave locate itself in an ocean. — Rumi

We are all the same ... all the same ...
longing to find our way back ...
back to the One ... back to the Only One! — Rumi

You've so distracted me, your absence fans my love. Don't ask how. Then you come near. "Do not ... " I say, and "Do not ... ," you answer. Don't ask why this delights me. — Rumi

If you want what visible reality can give, you are an employee.
If you want the unseen world you are not living with your truth.
Both wishes are foolish, but you'll be forgiven for forgetting that what you really want is loves confusing joy. — Rumi

Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. When the ocean is searching for you, don't walk into the river. Listen to the ocean. — Rumi

I come to YOU without ME, come to ME without YOU. — Rumi

In this earth,
in this immaculate field,
we shall not plant any seeds
except for compassion,
except for love. — Rumi

You are the drop,and the ocean
you are kindness,you are anger,
you are sweetness,you are poison.
Do not make me more disheartened.
you are the chamber of the sun,
you are the abode of venus,
you are the garden of all hope.
Oh, Beloved, let me enter. — Rumi

The gifts of lovers to one another are, in respect to love, nothing but forms; yet, they testify to invisible love. — Rumi

My longing for you keeps me in this moment My passion gives me courage — Rumi

Before death takes away what you are given, give away what there is to give. — Rumi

I am your lover, come to my side, I will open the gate to your love.
Come settle with me, let us be neighbors to the stars.
You have been hiding so long, endlessly drifting in the sea of my love.
Even so, you have always been connected to me.
Concealed, revealed, in the unknown, in the un-manifest.
I am life itself. You have been a prisoner of a little pond,
I am the ocean and its turbulent flood. Come merge with me,
leave this world of ignorance. Be with me, I will open the gate to your love. — Rumi

Sometimes we plan a trip to one place, but something takes us to another — Rumi

Here is a story of a young prince who suddenly sees that the ambitious world is a big game of king
of the mountain, a boy scrambling up a pile of sand to call out, "I am king"; then another
throws him off to make his momentary claim, then another and so on. — Rumi

Be the rising Moon in my dark nights.
I am thirsty for your Light. — Rumi

Dance from here to the other world-and don't stop. — Rumi

Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream. — Rumi

The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh. — Rumi

In every religion there is love, yet love has no religion. — Rumi

The real beloved is your beginning and your end.
When you find that one,
you'll no longer expect anything else — Rumi

As for us, He has appointed the job of permanent unemployment.
If he wanted us to work, after all,
He would not have created this wine.
With a skinfull of this, Sir,
would you rush out to commit economics? — Rumi

Yesterday was glory and joy. Today, a blackened burn everywhere. On the record of my life, these two days will be put down as one — Rumi

Through love scraps of copper are turned to gold. — Rumi

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. — Rumi

If you are wholly perplexed and in straits, have patience, for patience is the key to joy. — Rumi

You attain to knowledge by argument;
You attain a craft or skill by practice;
If voluntary poverty's your choice,
companionship's the way, not hand or tongue.
The knowledge of it passes soul to soul,
not by way of talk or reams of notes.
Its signs are writ upon the seeker's heart,
yet still the seeker cannot ken those signs
until his heart becomes exposed to light
Then God reveals His: Did We not expose? [Qur'an 94:1]
for We've exposed the chambers of your breast
and placed the exposition in your heart — Rumi

Even when tied in a thousand knots, the string is still but one. — Rumi

From understanding comes LOVE. — Rumi

I have come to drag you out of yourself and take you into my heart. I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had, and lift you like a prayer to the sky. — Rumi

The young man could stand it no more.
What is this? I've been ambushed by a night patrol
in full daylight! Your blitherings try to keep me
from the presence of a holy man,
but I know what light led me here, the same
that turned the golden calf into words in a sacred story.
A saint is a theater where the qualities of God can be seen.
Don't try to keep me out. Puff on this candle, and your face will get burned! Rather try blowing out the sun, or fitting a muzzle on the sea!
Old bats like you dream that their cave-dark
is everywhere, but it's not. — Rumi

Dive today from the cliff of what you know into what you can't know. — Rumi

Desire
I desire you
more than food
and drink
My body
my senses
my mind
hunger for your taste
I can sense your presence
in my heart
although you belong
to all the world
I wait
with silent passion
for one gesture
one glance
from you — Rumi