Rumi Inspirational Quotes & Sayings

You have forgotten the One
who doesn't care about ownership,
who doesn't try to turn a profit
from every human exchange. — Rumi

Enough of these phrases, conceit and metaphors,
I want burning, burning, burning. — Rumi

Roar, lion of the heart, and tear me open! — Rumi

Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths. — Rumi

Every moment I shape my destiny with a chisel, I am a carpenter of my own soul. — Rumi

To a frog that's never left his pond, the ocean seems like a gamble. Look what he's giving up: security, mastery of his world, recognition! The ocean frog just shakes his head. "I can't explain where I live, but someday I'll take you there." — Rumi

This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief. — Rumi

People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another. — Rumi

You think of yourself
as a citizen of the universe.
You think you belong
to this world of dust and matter.
Out of this dust
you have created a personal image,
and have forgotten
about the essence of your true origin — Rumi

Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah ... it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you. — Rumi

Anyone who knows me, should learn to know me again;
For I am like the Moon,
you will see me with new face everyday. — Rumi

Absorbed in this world, you've made it your burden. Rise above this world. There is another vision. All your life you've paid attention to your experiences, but never to your Self. Are you searching for your Soul? Then come out of your prision. Leave the stream and join the river that flows into the Ocean. It will not lead you astray. Let the beauty you seek be what you do. — Rumi

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "My Companions are as stars. Whomsoever of them you follow, you will be rightly guided." When a man looks at a star, and finds his way by it, the star does not speak any word to that man. Yet, by merely looking at the star, the man knows the road from roadlessness and reaches his goal. — Rumi

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open? — Rumi

Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon. — Rumi

The fearful ascetic runs on foot, along the surface.
Lovers move like lightning and wind.
No contest. — Jalaluddin Rumi

You soak up my soul and mingle me. Each drop of my blood cries out to the earth. We are partners, blended as one. — Rumi

Yesterday I was clever and tried to change the world. Today I am wise and try to change myself. — 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

I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home. — Rumi

The sun never has an inferiority complex. It shines the same whether above or below. — Curtis Tyrone Jones

From "Wetness and Water"
How does a part of the world leave the world?
How can wetness leave water?
Do not try to put out a fire
by throwing on more fire.
Do not wash a wound with blood.
No matter how fast you run,
your shadow more than keeps up.
Sometimes it's in front.
Only full, overhead sun
diminishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you.
What hurts you blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest. — Rumi

I have spent my life dreaming of your face. Now, I have found it. — Rumi

Your way begins at the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now. — Rumi

Very high, very grand, and very wise is the ocean of God, the Water of Life. You went after the form and were lead astray. How can you see it? You abandoned the truth. Sometimes it is named "tree," sometimes "sun," sometimes "ocean," sometimes "cloud," one thing from which scores of discoveries arise, its slightest definition an everlasting life. — Rumi

Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth. — 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

The deeper the grief, the more radiant the love. — Rumi

We had little idea that this was the beginning of a much greater journey towards finding our true self, with Rumi and Shams as our fearless guides. — Jamila Hammad

Truth lifts the heart, like water refreshes thirst. — Rumi

Show me anger and I will show you 'Hurt'. Show me hurt and I will show you 'Love'. Peel the layers if you care! — Rumi

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

You're water. We're the millstone.
You're wind. We're dust blown up into shapes.
You're spirit. We're the opening and closing
of our hands. You're the clarity.
We're the language that tries to say it.
You're joy. We're all the different kinds of laughing. — Rumi

In one moment, we are now forever,
in one moment ... — Paul Goldman

There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled.
You feel it, don't you? — Rumi

Rumi and Shams taught us how to see the world with new eyes, how to find our place in the order of things, and how to extricate the true self trapped under layers of noise. — Jamila Hammad

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

Speak Little. Learn the words of eternity.
Go beyond your tangled thoughts and
find the splendor of paradise. — Rumi

Break your pitcher against a rock. We don't need any longer to haul pieces of the ocean around. — Rumi

Rumi and Shams bring to our lives the simple truth that we are not alone, that God really does care. And God's joyous love for each of us is rivaled only by Her divine sense of humor. — Jamila Hammad

Every need brings what's needed.
Pain bears its cure like a child.
Having nothing produces provisions.
Ask a difficult question,
And the marvelous answer appears. — Rumi

This is enough was always true. We just haven't seen it. — Rumi

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing pain.
Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let your note be clear.
Don't try to end it.
Be your note. — Rumi

Without you the instruments would die.
One sits close beside you. Another takes a long kiss.
The tambourine begs, Touch my skin so I can be myself.
Let me feel you enter each limb bone by bone,
that what died last night can be whole today.
Why live some soberer way, and feel you ebbing out?
I won't do it.
Either give me enough wine or leave me alone,
now that I know how it is
to be with you in constant conversation. — Rumi

Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart. — Rumi

If it is bread that you seek, you will have bread.
If it is the soul you seek, you will find the soul.
If you understand this secret, you know you are that which you seek. — Rumi

Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. — Rumi

Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being. — Rumi

Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd. — Rumi

Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave 'til it gets to shore. You need more help than you know. — Rumi

Give your weakness to one who helps. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Open your hands if you want to be held. — Rumi

Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free. — Rumi

The breath of the flute player: does it belong to the flute? — Rumi

Flow down and down in always widening rings of being. — Rumi

Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear. — Rumi

We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust. — Rumi

Wherever you stand, be the Soul of that place. — Jalaluddin Rumi

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 — Rumi

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

According to Islam, whenever we are struck by illness or misfortune or someone hurts us, there is a higher purpose behind it, which we may not understand at the time,' one of them said to me. 'That's where trust comes in. Through suffering, God helps us to better ourselves and make good our mistakes. It is a form of purification and also God's way of testing the strength of our faith and the goodness of our character.' Another lady suggested I look on the bright side.

'Suffering draws us closer to God and that is our aim in life,' she said. Then she quoted Rumi who had said, 'It is pain that draws man to his Lord, because when he is well, he doesn't remember the Lord.' I tried to look at the positive and believe that there was a higher, spiritual perspective on what I had just been through, and all the advice I was given helped me a lot. But it took quite a while for my heart to catch up with my mind. — Kristiane Backer

You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life? — Rumi

The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are. — Rumi

The ground's generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty! Try to be more like the ground. — Rumi

If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished? — Rumi

Don't try to steer the boat.
Don't open shop for yourself. Listen. Keep silent.
You are not God's mouthpiece. Try to be an ear,
And if you do speak, ask for explanations. — Rumi

You are not a drop in a ocean,
You are entire ocean in a drop. — Jalaluddin Rumi

An eye is meant to see things.
The soul is here for its own joy.
A head has one use: For loving a true love.
Feet: To chase after.
Love is for vanishing into the sky. The mind,
for learning what men have done and tried to do.
Mysteries are not to be solved: The eye goes blind
when it only wants to see why.
A lover is always accused of something.
But when he finds his love, whatever was lost
in the looking comes back completely changed. — Rumi

God's purpose for man is to acquire a seeing eye and an understanding heart." "God gave you life and bestowed upon you his attributes; eventually you will return to him." "The rewards of life and devotion to God are love and inner rapture, and the capacity to receive the light of God. — Rumi

Every need brings in what's needed. Pain bears its cure like a child. — Rumi

Anyone who genuinely and consistently with both hands look for something, will find it. — Rumi

Listen my love, illumination is eternal. Now is always evolving. As there are billions of stars, there are billions of steps. As there are billions of souls, there are billions of ways to grow. — 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

Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Tear off the mask. Your face is glorious. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Why am I seeking? I am the same as he. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself — Rumi