244 Powerful Poems, Rumi Quotes About Love, Life And Friendship

Who was Rumi

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi also known as Mowlana or Mawlawi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and a Sufi mystic. Rumi has influenced people across linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries. The whole Turco-Persian world from India, Central Asia to Turkey is greatly influenced by him. Lately, he has been very popular in the United States. 

Rumi was born in Balkh, a city in present-day Afghanistan. From a young age, he was a brilliant student. He studied under his father and later after his death under Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq.

Rumi was a practice of Sufism from an early age but it was his encounter with Shams Tabriz that completely changed his life and made him Mawlana. 

Legends say that one day Rumi was sitting with his books beside a pond. Incidentally Shams Tabriz a wandering Dervish passed by and asked Rumi: 

"What is it that you are reading?"

Looking at Shams he said:

"'You can not understand."

Suddenly Shams threw all of Rumi's books into the pond. Rumi was dumbfounded. He asked Shams:

"What is this?"

Shams replied:

"This is what You can not understand."

The incident is said to have transformed Mawlana forever. He became a companion of Shams and started to compose poetry. 

Here are some Rumi Quotes About love, life, and friendship from his poems that can help us understand his message.    

Rumi: What is Love

“A pen went scribbling along. When it tried to write love, it broke.”

“Be certain that in the religion of Love there are no believers and unbelievers. LOVE embraces all.”

“Love is the bridge between you and everything.” 

 “We are born of love; Love is our mother.”

 “Love is an open secret, the most obvious thing in the world and the most hidden, with no why to how it keeps its mystery.”

“There is little one can say about love. It has to be lived, and it’s always in motion.”

“Love rests on no foundation. It is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end.”

“Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.”

“Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.”

Rumi on Love

“Love so needs to love
that it will endure almost anything, even abuse,
just to flicker for a moment. But the sky’s mouth is kind,
its song will never hurt you, for I
sing those words.”

“In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.”

 “Someone who does not run toward the allure of love walks a road where nothing lives. But this dove here senses the love hawk floating above, and waits, and will not be driven or scared to safety.”

“When you seek love with all your heart you shall find its echo in the universe.”

“Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.” 

“Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love.”

“You have within you more love than you could ever understand.”

 “Love is a river. Drink from it.”

“We love that's why life is full of so many wonderful gifts.”

“With life as short as a half taken breath, don’t plant anything but love.”

“In every religion there is love, yet love has no religion.”

“On the path of love, we are neither masters nor the owners of our lives. We are only a brush in the hand of the master painter.”

“If you want to be more alive, love is the truest health.”

“Through Love, all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love, all that is copper will be gold, Through Love, all dregs will become wine, through Love all pain will turn to medicine. ” 

“I have no companion but Love, no beginning, no end, no dawn. The Soul calls from within me: ‘You, ignorant of the way of Love, set Me free.’”

“All doubt, despair, and fear become insignificant once the intention of life becomes love.”

 “Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.” 

“A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.”

“A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.”  

Are you liking these quotes? Read some more Rumi Quotes about Love. 

Rumi Love Quotes

“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” 

“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.”

“What? Are you still pretending you are separate from the Beloved?”

“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.”

 “This is a subtle truth. Whatever you love you are.” 

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

“Thankfulness brings you to the place where the beloved lives.”

“Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there.”

“I belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple.”

“You cannot hide love, love will get on its way to the heart of someone you love far or near, it goes home to where it belongs to the heart of lovers.”

“To love is human. To feel pain is human. Yet to still love despite the pain is pure angel.”

“If I love myself, I love you. If I love you, I love myself.”

“Lovers have heartaches that can’t be cured by drugs or sleep or games, but only by seeing their beloved.”

“The heart has its own language. The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak.”

“Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven.”

“Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”

“If you find me not within you, you will never find me. For I have been with you, from the beginning of me.”

“I crave a love so deep the ocean would be jealous.”

“A lover has four streams inside, of water, wine, honey, and milk. Find those in yourself, and pay no attention what so-and-so says about such-and-such. The rose does not care if someone calls it a thorn, or a jasmine. Ordinary eyes categorize human beings, That one is a Zoroastrian. This one, Muslim. Walk instead with the other vision given you, your first eyes.”

“The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.”

Find out what is true beauty. 

Rumi poems: Love

I swear since seeing your face

I swear since seeing your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf or blossom
The distracted birds can't distinguish the bird seed from the snare

I am the soul of the world.

I once had a thousand desires,
But in my one desire to know you
all else melted away.
The pure essence of your being
has taken over my heart and soul.
Now there is no second or third,
only the sound of your sweet cry.
Through your grace I have found
a treasure within myself.
I have found the truth of the Unseen world.
I have come upon the eternal ecstasy.
I have gone beyond the ravages of time.
I have become one with you!
Now my heart sings,
“I am the soul of the world.”

The Reed Flute's Song

Listen to the story told by the reed,
of being separated.

"Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.

Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.

Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back.

At any gathering I am there,
mingling in the laughing and grieving,

a friend to each, but few
will hear the secrets hidden

within the notes. No ears for that.
Body flowing out of spirit,

spirit up from body: no concealing
that mixing. But it's not given us

to see the soul. The reed flute
is fire, not wind. Be that empty."

Hear the love fire tangled
in the reed notes, as bewilderment

melts into wine. The reed is a friend
to all who want the fabric torn

and drawn away. The reed is hurt
and salve combining. Intimacy

and longing for intimacy, one
song. A disastrous surrender

and a fine love, together. The one
who secretly hears this is senseless.

A tongue has one customer, the ear.
A sugarcane flute has such effect

because it was able to make sugar
in the reedbed. The sound it makes

is for everyone. Days full of wanting,
let them go by without worrying

that they do. Stay where you are
inside such a pure, hollow note.

Every thirst gets satisfied except
that of these fish, the mystics,

who swim a vast ocean of grace
still somehow longing for it!

No one lives in that without
being nourished every day.

But if someone doesn't want to hear
the song of the reed flute,

it's best to cut conversation
short, say good-bye, and leave.

Heart is sea

“Heart is sea,
language is shore.
Whatever sea includes,
will hit the shore.”

Through Love

Through Love, all that is bitter will sweet
Through Love, all that is copper will be gold.
Through Love, all dregs will turn to purest wine
Through Love, all pain will turn to medicine.
Through Love, the dead will all become alive.
Through Love, the king will turn into a slave

My love, you are closer to me than myself...

My love, you are closer to me than myself...
You shine through my eyes,

Your light is brighter than the Moon...
Step into the garden so all the flowers...
Even the tall poplar can kneel before your beauty...
Let your voice silence the lily famous for its hundred tongues,

When you want to be kind...
You are softer than the soul...
But when you withdraw...
You can be so cold and harsh.

Dear one, you can be wild and rebellious...
But when you meet him face to face...
His charm will make you docile like the earth,

Throw away your shield and bare your chest...
There is no stronger protection than him.

That's why when the Lover withdraws from the world...
He covers all the cracks in the wall...
So the outside light cannot come though,

He knows that only the inner light illuminates his world!

You are my wine, my joy

You are my wine, my joy,
My garden, my springtime,
My slumber, my repose,
Without you, I can't cope.

Ashamed

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Silence

Why are you so afraid of silence,
silence is the root of everything.
If you spiral into its void,
a hundred voices will thunder
messages you long to hear

The Real beloved

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

The heart is like a candle

The heart is like a candle
longing to be lit.
Torn from the beloved
it yearns to be whole again,
but you have to bear the pain.
You cannot learn about love.
Love appears on the wings of grace.

Totally… silent

I said, O Love,
tell me this:
Does the Lord know you are
treating me this way?
Love said to me,
yes He does,
just be totally…
totally… silent

 With it we probe the divine

No one can tell if I’m laughing
or weeping. I wonder myself.
How can I be separated and yet in union?”
“Heartsick, heartbroken—
To know love is to know pain.
What could be more common?
Even so, each broken heart is so singular
That with it we probe the divine.

We are the mirror

We are the mirror, as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste of eternity this minute.
We are pain and what cures pain.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.
Soul of the world, no life, nor world remain,
no beautiful women and men longing.
Only this ancient love circling the holy black stone of nothing.
Where the lover is the loved, the horizon and everything within it.

When the rose is gone and the garden faded

When the rose is gone and the garden faded
you will no longer hear the nightingale's song.
The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil.
The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing.
If love withholds its strengthening care,
the lover is left like a bird without care,
the lover is left like a bird without wings.
How will I be awake and aware
if the light of the Beloved is absent?
Love wills that this Word be brought forth.

My first love story

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.

I want to see you

I want to see you.
Know your voice.

Recognize you when you
first come 'round the corner.

Sense your scent when I come
into a room you've just left.

Know the lift of your heel,
the glide of your foot.

Become familiar with the way
you purse your lips
then let them part,
just the slightest bit,
when I lean in to your space
and kiss you.

I want to know the joy
of how you whisper
"more” 

Without you, I can't cope

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.

You have no end

I choose to love you in silence…
For in silence I find no rejection,

I choose to love you in loneliness…
For in loneliness no one owns you but me,

I choose to adore you from a distance…
For distance will shield me from pain,

I choose to kiss you in the wind…
The wound is the place where the Light enters youFor the wind is gentler than my lips,

I choose to hold you in my dreams…
For in my dreams, you have no end.

Lovers find secret places

Lovers find secret places
inside this violent world
where they make transactions
with beauty.

The wound is the place where the Light enters you

I said: what about my eyes?
He said: Keep them on the road.

I said: What about my passion?
He said: Keep it burning.

I said: What about my heart?
He said: Tell me what you hold inside it?

I said: Pain and sorrow.
He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

This is how I would die

This is how I would die
into the love I have for you:
As pieces of cloud
dissolve in sunlight.

Love calls

Love calls - everywhere and always.
We're sky bound.
Are you coming?

For without you, I swear, the town

For without you, I swear, the town
Has become like a prison to me.
Distraction and the mountain
And the desert, all I desire.

To live without you

To live without you
is to be robbed of love
and what is life without it?
To live without you
is death to me, my love
but some call it life.

The way of love 

The way of love is not
a subtle argument.

The door there
is devastation.

Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?

They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.

I love you...I love myself

A lover asked his beloved,
Do you love yourself more than you love me?
Beloved replied, I have died to myself and I live for you.
I've disappeared from myself and my attributes,
I am present only for you.
I've forgotten all my learnings,
but from knowing you I've become a scholar.
I've lost all my strength, but from your power I am able.
I love myself...I love you.
I love you...I love myself.

I've come to take you with me

I've come to take you with me
even if I must drag you along
But first I must steal your heart
then settle you in my soul.

I've come as a spring
to lay beside your blossoms
To feel the glory of happiness
and spread your flowers around

I've come to show you off
as the adornment in my house
and elevate you to the heavens
as the prayers of those in love.

I've come to take back
the kiss you once stole
Either return it with grace
or I must take it by force

You're my life
You're my soul
Please be my last prayer
My heart must hold you forever

From the lowly earth
to the high human soul
There are a lot more
than a thousand stages

Since I've taken you along
from town to town
no way will I abandon
you halfway down this road

Though you're in my hands
Though i can throw you around
like a child and a ball
I'll always need to chase after you

Love is the work of wrestlers

Love isn't the work of the tender and the gentle;
Love is the work of wrestlers.
The one who becomes a servant of lovers
is really a fortunate sovereign.
Don't ask anyone about Love; ask Love about Love.
Love is a cloud that scatters pearls.

 Love is endless

I said to the night,
"If you are in love with the moon,
it is because you never stay for long."
The night turned to me and said,
"It is not my fault. I never see the Sun,
how can I know that love is endless?”

Why should I seek more?

Why should I seek more?
I am the same as He.
His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself.

You have wings

You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.

Go back to sleep

Go back,
go back to sleep.

Yes, you are allowed.
You who have no Love in your heart,
you can go back to sleep.

The power of Love
is exclusive to us,
you can go back to sleep.

I have been burnt
by the fire of Love.
You who have no such yearning in your heart,
go back to sleep.

The path of Love,
has seventy-two folds and countless facets.
Your love and religion
is all about deceit, control and hypocrisy,
go back to sleep.

I have torn to pieces my robe of speech,
and have let go of the desire to converse.
You who are not naked yet,
you can go back to sleep.

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

In your light I learn how to love

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

Drumsound rises on the air,
its throb, my heart.

A voice inside the beat says,
"I know you're tired,
but come. This is the way.

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give this joy to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups!
They swim the huge fluid freedom.

Lose yourself

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself in this love.
When you lose yourself in this love,
you will find everything.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Do not fear this loss,
For you will rise from the earth
and embrace the endless heavens.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from this earthly form,
For this body is a chain
and you are its prisoner.
Smash through the prison wall
and walk outside with the kings and princes.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself at the foot of the glorious King. When you lose yourself
before the King
you will become the King.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from the black cloud
that surrounds you.
Then you will see your own light
as radiant as the full moon.

Now enter that silence.
This is the surest way
to lose yourself. . . .

What is your life about, anyway?—
Nothing but a struggle to be someone,
Nothing but a running from your own silence.

I was dead

I was dead
I came alive
I was tears
I became laughter
all because of love
when it arrived
my temporal life
from then on
changed to eternal

Love said to me
you are not
crazy enough
you don’t
fit this house

I went and
became crazy
crazy enough
to be in chains
love said
you are not
intoxicated enough
you don’t
fit the group

I went and
got drunk
drunk enough
to overflow
with light-headedness
Love said
you are still
too clever
filled with
imagination and skepticism

I went and
became gullible
and in fright
pulled away
from it all
Love said
you are a candle
attracting everyone
gathering every one
around you

I am no more
a candle spreading light
I gather no more crowds
and like smoke
I am all scattered now

Love said
you are a teacher
you are a head
and for everyone
you are a leader
I am no more
not a teacher
not a leader
just a servant
to your wishes

Love said
you already have
your own wings
I will not give you
more feathers
and then my heart
pulled itself apart
and filled to the brim
with a new light
overflowed with fresh life

Now even the heavens
are thankful that
because of love
I have become
the giver of light

I'm drenched

I'm drenched
in the flood
which has yet to come

I'm tied up
in the prison
that has yet to exist

Not having played
the game of chess
I'm already the checkmate

Not having tasted
a single cup of your wine
I'm already drunk

Not having entered
the battlefield
I'm already wounded and slain

I no longer
know the difference
between image and reality

Like the shadow
I am
and
I am not

Lovers find secret places

Lovers find secret places
inside this violent world
where they make transactions
with beauty.

Reason says, Nonsense.
I have walked and measured the walls here.
There are no places like that.

Love says, There are.

Reason sets up a market
and begins doing business.
Love has more hidden work.

Hallaj steps away from the pulpit
and climbs the stairs of the gallows.

Lovers feel a truth inside themselves
that rational people keep denying.

It is reasonable to say, Surrender
is just an idea that keeps people from leading their lives.

Love responds, No. This thinking
is what is dangerous.

Using language obscures
what Shams came to give.

Every day the sun rises
out of low word-clouds
into burning silence.

Die! Die! Die!

Die! Die! Die in this love!
If you die in this love, Your soul will be renewed.
Die! Die! Don’t fear the death of that which is known
If you die to the temporal, You will become timeless.

If you are interested in reading more love quotes here are love quotes from some famous authors.  

Friendship Quotes by Rumi

“I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.”

“I am filled with you. Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul. There’s no room for lack of trust or trust. Nothing in this existence but that existence.” 

“If you are seeking, seek us with joy
For we live in the kingdom of joy.
Do not give your heart to anything else
But to the love of those who are clear joy,
Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.
For there are hopes: they are real, they exist –
Do not go in the direction of darkness –
I tell you: suns exist.” 

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come.”

Rumi friendship quote: perfection

“If you are looking for a friend who is faultless, you will be friendless.”

Rumi friendship quote: Goodbyes

 “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.” 

“When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.” 

“The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you.” 

“There is a moon inside every human being. Learn to be companions with it.”

“Be a helpful friend, and you will become a green tree with always new fruit, always deeper journeys into love.”

Rumi Quotes About Friendship

“Take someone who doesn’t keep score, who’s not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: he’s free.”

“Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”

“Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.” 

“What you seek is seeking you.” 

“It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.” 

“Your heart and my heart are very, very old friends.”

“My heart, sit only with those who know and understand you.”

“There is nothing I want but your presence. In friendship, time dissolves.”

“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.”

“Always search for your innermost nature in those you are with, as rose oil imbibes from roses.”

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

“A warm, rainy day-this is how it feels when friends get together. Friend refreshes friend then, as flowers do each others, in a spring rain.”

“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”

“Friendship of the wise is good; a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.”

“Friend, our closeness is this: anywhere you put your foot, feel me in the firmness under you.”

“Be with those who help your being.”

“At the end of my life, with just one breathe left, if you come, I’ll sit up and sing.”

“A generous friend gives life for a friend. Let’s rise above this animalistic behavior and be kind to one another.” 

“The one who has a good friend doesn’t need any mirror.” 

“What draws friends together does not conform to the laws of nature.” 

“I love my friends neither with my heart nor with my mind. Just in case my heart might stop and mind can forget. I love them with my soul. Soul never stops or forgets.”

“Friends are enemies sometimes and enemies, friends.”

“Study me as much as you like, you will never know me. For I differ a hundred ways from what you see me to be.“

Poems on Friendship by Rumi

Find Yourself a Friend

Find yourself a friend
who is willing to
tolerated you with patience
put to the test the essence
of the best incense
by putting it in fire
drink a cup of poison
if handed to you by a friend
when filled with love and grace
step into the fire
like the chosen prophet
the secret love will change
hot flames to a garden
covered with blossoms
roses and hyacinths and willow
spinning and throwing you
a true friend can hold you
like God and his universe

People want you to be happy

People want you to be happy.
Don't keep serving them your pain!

If you could untie your wings
and free your soul of jealousy,

you and everyone around you
would fly up like doves.

What can I do my friends

What can I do my friends, if I do not know?
I am neither Christian nor Jew, nor Muslim nor Hindu.
What can I do? What can I do?

Not of the East, nor of the West,
Nor of the land, nor of the sea,
Not of nature's essence, nor of circling heavens.
What could I be?

Deep Rumi Quotes on Life

“Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.”

“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.”

“Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.”

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.”

“It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost.”

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”

“Open your hands if you want to be held.”

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

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

“Let silence take you to the core of life.” 

“The whole universe is contained within a single human being – you.”

“Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk.” 

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

“Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the worlds.” 

“The very center of your heart is where life begins – the most beautiful place on earth.”

“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”

“Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.”

 “Only from the heart can you touch the sky.”

“The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night.”

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” 

“Whenever they rebuild an old building, they must first of all destroy the old one.” 

“Everything about yesterday has gone with yesterday. Today, it is needed to say new things.” 

“If you want to win hearts, sow the seeds of Love. If you want heaven, stop scattering thorns on the road.” 

“Whatever happens, just keep smiling and lose yourself in love.” 

“Why should I be weary when every cell of my body is bursting with life?” 

“The rose’s rarest essence lives in the thorns.”

“Shine like the whole universe is yours.”

“Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.”

“Not only the thirsty seek the water, the water as well seeks the thirsty.”

“Pain is a treasure, for it contains mercies.”

“What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.”

“The ground’s generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty! Try to be more like the ground.”

“Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love.”

“Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of This Moment.”

“The morning wind spreads its fresh smell. We must get up and take that in, that wind that lets us live. Breathe before it’s gone.”

“Whatever purifies you is the right path, I will not try to define it.”

“Everything you possess of skill, and wealth, and handicraft,
wasn’t it first merely a thought and a quest?” 

“In each moment the fire rages, it will burn away a hundred veils. And carry you a thousand steps toward your goal.”

“Be kind to yourself, dear – to our innocent follies. Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance. You will come to see that all evolves us.” 

“Achieve some perfection yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others.” 

“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and twice as beautiful as you’d ever imagined.” 

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

“The garden of the world has no limits except in your mind.”

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

“A wealth you cannot imagine flows through you. Do not consider what strangers say. Be secluded in your secret heart-house, that bowl of silence.”

“Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you?”

“If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” 

“You have no need to travel anywhere – journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.”

“Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are.” 

“Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.”

“We rarely hear the inward music, but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless.”

“Our greatest strength lies in the gentleness and tenderness of our heart.”

“Let the waters settle and you will see the moon and the stars mirrored in your own being.”

“I want to sing like the birds sing,

not worrying about who hears

or what they think.”

“Raise your words not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers not thunder.

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” 

“What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”

“All people on the planet are children, except for a very few. No one is grown up except those free of desire.”

“Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.”

Read some more quotes about gratitude here. 

“Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.”

“Get yourself out of the way, and let joy have more space.”

“You are the seeker, the goal, and seeking itself. Not only a part of them.”

“Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you. Unfold your own myth.”

“Don’t get lost in your pain, know that one day your pain will become your cure.” 

“Why are you knocking at every other door? Go, knock at the door of your own heart.”

“Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.”

“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, he said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.”

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” 

“Giving thanks for abundance is sweeter than the abundance itself.”

“One of the marvels of the world: The sight of a soul sitting in prison with the key in its hand.”

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

How to deal with anger and anxiety? Find out here. 

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”

“Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” 

“Keep silent, because the world of silence is a vast fullness.”

“My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”

“The message behind the words is the voice of the heart.” 

“Caught by our own thoughts, we worry about everything.”

“The angel is free because of his knowledge, the beast because of his ignorance. Between the two remains the son of man to struggle.”

“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” 

“If people misunderstand you, don’t worry. It’s your voice that they hear. But what goes through their mind is their own thoughts.”

“I learned that every mortal will taste death. Only some will taste life.” 

“You wander from room to room, hunting for the diamond necklace that is already on your neck.” 

“Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love, which linger and continue to uplift others long after your sharing.”

“If you look too closely at the form, you'll miss the essence”

“Leave that which is not,
but appears to be. Seek that which is,
but is not apparent.”

“The world is a mountain. Whatever you say, it will echo it back to you. Don't say, "I sang nicely and the mountain echoed an ugly voice!" That is not possible. The human intellect is a place where hesitation and uncertainty take root. There is no way to overcome this hesitation except by falling in love.”

“The desire to know your own soul will end all other desires.”

“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom”

“Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.”

“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.”

Poems by Rumi about Life

Make your last journey

Make your last journey
from this strange world
soar for the heights
where there is no more
separation of you and your home

God has created
your wings not to be dormant
as long as you are alive
you must try more and more
to use your wings to show you’re alive

Notice!

Notice how each particle moves.
Notice how everyone has just arrived here
from a journey.
Notice how each wants a different food.
Notice how the stars vanish as the sun comes up,
and how all streams stream toward the ocean.

Look at the chefs preparing special plates
for everyone, according to what they need.
Look at this cup that can hold the ocean.
Look at those who see the face.
Look through Shams’ eyes
into the Water that is
entirely jewels.

Appear as you are

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.

My heart is so small

My heart is so small
it's almost invisible.
How can You place
such big sorrows in it?
"Look," He answered,
"your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world.”

An eye is meant to see things

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.

You are a volume in the divine book

You are a volume in the divine book
A mirror to the power that created the universe
Whatever you want, ask it of yourself
Whatever you’re looking for can only be found
Inside of you

You think of yourself

“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”

Wine drinker

If the wine drinker
has a deep gentleness in him,
he will show that when drunk.
But if he has hidden anger and arrogance,
those appear.

Be Humble

The same wind that uproots trees
makes the grass shine.

The lordly wind loves the weakness
and the lowness of grasses.
Never brag of being strong.

The axe doesn't worry how thick the branches are.
It cuts them to pieces. But not the leaves.
It leaves the leaves alone.

Be motivated like the falcon

Be motivated like the falcon,
hunt gloriously.
Be magnificent as the leopard,
fight to win.
Spend less time with
nightingales and peacocks.
One is all talk,
the other only color.

The dream that must be interpreted

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.

But there's a difference with this dream.
Everything cruel and unconscious
done in the illusion of the present world,
all that does not fade away at the death-waking.

It stays,
and it must be interpreted.

All the mean laughing,
all the quick, sexual wanting,
those torn coats of Joseph,
they change into powerful wolves
that you must face.

The retaliation that sometimes comes now,
the swift, payback hit,
is just a boy's game
to what the other will be.

You know about circumcision here.
It's full castration there!

And this groggy time we live,
this is what it's like:

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived, and he dreams he's living
in another town.

In the dream, he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in. He believes
the reality of the dream town.

The world is that kind of sleep.

The dust of many crumbled cities
settles over us like a forgetful doze,
but we are older than those cities.

On the day I die

On the day I die, when I'm being carried
toward the grave, don't weep. Don't say,

He's gone! He's gone. Death has nothing to do with going away. The sun sets and

the moon sets, but they're not gone.
Death is a coming together. The tomb

looks like a prison, but it's really
release into union. The human seed goes

down in the ground like a bucket into
the well where Joseph is. It grows and

comes up full of some unimagined beauty.
Your mouth closes here, and immediately

opens with a shout of joy there.

A jar full of delight

Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.

Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.

Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,

the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about "what's needed."

Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it's been untied,
and is just ambling about.

Rumi Poems: Life

Know Yourself

Know the true definition of yourself. That is essential.
Then, when you know your own definition, flee from it.

This world

This world
hurts
my head
with its answers.
I would burn if I had a choice.

People who repress desires

People who repress desires
often turn, suddenly,
into hypocrites.

What else can I say?

What else can I say?
You will only hear
what you are ready to hear.
Don’t nod your head,
Don’t try to fool me—
the truth of what you see
is written all over your face!”

Knock

Knock, And He'll open the door
Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun
Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing, And He'll turn you into everything.

Be empty

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?

Rumi Poems: Deep poetry about Life

Shadow

Like a shadow,
I am and I am not.

New language

Speak a new language
so that the world
will be a new world.

Half of life

Half of life is lost in charming others.
The other half is lost in going through anxieties caused by others.
Leave this play. You have played enough.

Travelers!

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

Your body

Your body is woven
from the light of heaven.
Are you aware
that its purity and swiftness
is the envy of angels
and its courage
keeps even devils away.

Rumi Poems: Deep Soulful Quotes

Black cloud

Escape from the black cloud
that surrounds you.
Then you will see your own light
as radiant as the full moon.

Soul

I am not this hair,
I am not this skin,
I am the soul that lives within

From inside

I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside.

Sit!

Sit, be still, and listen,
because you're drunk
and we're at
the edge of the roof.