If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?
Masnavi, Book I, tr. Kabir Helminski
R
Rumi quotes
1207-1273 ยท Philosophers and ancient wisdom
Persian poet and Sufi mystic who wrote the Masnavi.
9 quotes, 9 traced to where Rumi said or wrote them.
If you are wholly perplexed and in straits, have patience, for patience is the key to joy.
Masnavi, Book I, tr. Kabir Helminski
Whoever gives reverence receives reverence.
Masnavi, Book I, tr. Kabir Helminski
Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them.
Masnavi, Book I, tr. Kabir Helminski
The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.
Masnavi, Book I
Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune: every success depends upon focusing the heart.
Masnavi, Book III, tr. Kabir Helminski
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?
Masnavi, Book III, tr. Kabir Helminski
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.
Masnavi, Book II, tr. Kabir Helminski
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
Masnavi, Book IV, tr. E. H. Whinfield