Rumi

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”

“He whose intellect overcomes his desire is higher than the angels; he whose desire overcomes his intellect is less than an animal.”

“The fault is in the one who blames. Spirit sees nothing to criticize.”

“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.”

“Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.”

“The idol of your self is the mother of all idols. To regard the self as easy to subdue is a mistake.”

“If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak.”

“If you dig a pit for others to fall into, you will fall into it yourself.”

“Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them.”

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

“Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead.”

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

“Anyone in whom the troublemaking self has died, sun and cloud obey. As his heart is afire with knowledge and love, the sun cannot burn him.”

“If you wish to shine like day, burn up the night of self-existence. Dissolve in the Being who is everything.”

“There is no worse sickness for the soul, O you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection. The heart and eyes must bleed a lot before self-complacency falls away.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey.”

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

“If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon, don't smile contemptuously upon its quest. Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft, wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?”

“Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune: Every success depends upon focusing the 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.”

“Many have been led astray by the Qur'an: by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well. There is no fault in the rope, O perverse man, for it was you who had no desire to reach the…”

“When you see anyone complaining of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper, know that the complainant is bad-tempered, forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person, because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing towards…”

“How can these works and this earning in the way of righteousness be accomplished without a master, O father? Can you practice the meanest profession in the world without a master's guidance?”

“Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation? What do you know of Love except the name? Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain, and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion. Since Love is…”

“If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it.”

“I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall…”

“The branch might seem like the fruit's origin: In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit.”

“Love is the path and road of our Prophet We were born from Love and Love was our mother. O you who are our mother, you are hidden within veils, Concealed from our disbelieving natures”

“I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world; But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world. If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;…”

“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I…”