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.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.

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.

Sell your cleverness, and purchase bewilderment.

…one cannot lodge in if.'

You think the shadow is the substance.

Patience is the key to joy.

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

Regard a king as someone unconcerned with kingship.

Revile those who flatter you.

Since in order to speak, one must first listen, learn to speak by listening.

Stay with friends who support you in these. Talk with them about sacred texts, and how you are doing, and how they are doing, and keep your practices together.

That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.

The beginning of pride and hatred lies in worldly desire, and the strength of your desire if from habit. When an evil tendency becomes confirmed by habit, rage is triggered when anyone restrains you.

The intelligent want self-control; children want candy.

Paradise is surrounded by what we dislike; the fires of hell are surrounded by what we desire.

The middle path is the way to wisdom.

The rain-weeping and the sun burning twine together to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot and your grief glistening, so your life will stay fresh. Cry easily like a little child.

The sword of reality is the saint's protection.

There is no worse sickness for the soul, o you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection.

This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.

Travelers, it is late. Life's sun is going to set. During these brief days that you have strength, be quick and spare no effort of your wings.

When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you are not here, I cannot go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias and the difference between them.

When the remedy you have offered only increases the disease, then leave him who will not be cured, and tell your story to someone who seeks the truth.

When your heart becomes the grave of your secrets, that desire of yours will be gained more quickly. The prophet said that anyone who keeps secret his inmost thought will soon attain the object of his desire. When seeds are buried in the earth, their inward secrets become the flourishing garden.

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

Fasting is the first principle of medicine.

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.

He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, Live!

I am burning. If anyone lacks tinder, let him set his rubbish ablaze with my fire.

If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?

If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don't abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.

Indeed envy is a defect; worse than any other.

It is God's kindness to terrify you in order to lead you to safety.

Know that a word suddenly shot from the tongue is like an arrow shot from the bow. Son, that arrow won't turn back on its way; you must damn the torrent at its source.

Everything in the universe is a pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty.

Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of invisible game.

Looking up gives light, although at first it makes you dizzy.

Loosen the bonds of avarice from your hands and neck.

My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way.

No mirror ever became iron again; <br />No bread ever became wheat; <br />No ripened grape ever became sour fruit. <br />Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse. <br />Become the light.

No prayer is complete without presence.

O, happy the soul that saw its own faults.

On the way there is no harder pass than this: fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.

Pale sunlight, pale the wall. Love moves away. The light changes I need more grace than I thought.

Let's ask God to help us to self-control for one who lacks it, lacks his grace.

Be occupied, then, with what you really value and let the thief take something else.

Beware! Don't allow yourself to do what you know is wrong, relying on the thought, Later I will repent and ask God's forgiveness.'

Brother stand the pain; Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal.

Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.

Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.

Don't allow your animal nature to rule your reason.

Don't let your throat tighten with fear. Take sips of breath all day and night, before death closes your mouth.

Everyone is so afraid of death, but the real sufis just laugh: nothing tyrannizes their hearts. What strikes the oyster shell does not damage the pearl.

Unfold your own myth.

There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. Human beings come into this world to do particular work. That work is their purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about. If you remember everything else and forget your true work, then you will have done nothing with your life.

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

Let’s ask God to help us to self-control for one who lacks it, lacks his grace.

There is no worse sickness for the soul, o you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection.

You think the shadow is the substance.

Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.

My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say ‘tomorrow’ is not our way.

Let the waters settle you will see stars and moon mirrored in your Being.

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.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all!