"Beloved, I sought you here and there, asked for news of you from all I met; then saw you through myself and found we were identical. Now I blush to think I ever searched for signs of you."

"They look, they see, but do not comprehend. They take no pleasure in the View, For to enjoy it one must know through the Truth of Certainty What he is seeing, through Whom, and why."

"Know yourself: a cloud drifting before your sun. Cut yourself off from your senses and behold your sun of intimacy."

"By day I praised You but never knew it; by night slept with You without realising; fancying myself to be myself; but no, I was You and never knew it."

"The Beloved's Loveliness owns a hundred thousand faces; gaze upon a different fair one in every atom; for She needs must show to every separate thing a different aspect of Her beauty."

"Expressions are many but Thy loveliness is one; Each of us refers to that single Beauty."

"It speaks to me in the silence of this one then through the words of that one speaking; it whispers to me through an eyebrow raised and the message of an eye winking."

"Like the sun I brighten each atom's cheek; I cannot be pinpointed: I am too manifest. I speak with every tongue, listen with all ears, but marvel at this: My ears and tongue are erased. Since in all the world only I exist above and below, no likeness of me can be found."

"Love plays its lute behind the screen — where is a lover to listen to its tune?"

"The world has spilled Love's secret — when could music ever hold its tongue? Every atom babbles the mystery — Listen yourself, for I'm no tattletale!"

"Love the phoenix cannot be trapped nor in heaven or earth can it be named; no one has yet discovered its address: its desert holds not a single footprint."

"The world but seems to be yet is nothing more than a line drawn between light and shadow. Decipher the message of this dream-script and learn to distinguish time from Eternity."

"He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God."

"Akibat gurg-zade gurg shavad Garche ba adami buzurg shavad."

"Ahanera ki morchana bikhurad Natawan burd azū basaiqal zang; Ba siyah dil che sud guftan w'az? Narawad mekh-i-ahanin dar sang."

"Agar sad sal gabar atish farozad Wa gar ek dam daru uftad basozad."

"Agar dunya na bashad, dardmandem Wa agar bashad, ba mihrash pae bandem Bala'e z'in jahan ashubtar nest Ki ranj-i-khatirast ar hast wa nest."

"Abar gar ab-i-zindagi barad Hargiz az shakh-i-bed bar na khori Bar faromaya rozgar mabar Kaz nai boriya shakar nakhori."

"A handsome woman is a jewel; a good woman is a treasure."

"He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life is like a man who ploughs in his field but does not sow."

"A little and a little, collected together, become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation."

"A traveller without observation is a bird without wings."

"God gives sleep to the bad, in order that the good maybe undisturbed."

"Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; if he were sensible of this he would not be ignorant."

"Were the king at noonday to say, "This day is night," it would behoove us to reply, "Lo! there are the moon and seven stars!""

"Obedience is not truly performed by the body, if the heart is dissatisfied."

"An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity."

"He who is intoxicated with wine will be sober again in the course of the night, but he who is intoxicated by the cup-bearer will not recover his senses until the day of judgment."

"He who learns, and makes no use of his learning, is a beast of burden with a load of books. — Does the ass comprehend whether he carries on his back a library or a bundle of faggots?"

"Two persons take trouble in vain, and use fruitless endeavors, — he who acquires wealth without enjoying it, and he who is taught wisdom but does not practice it. How much soever you may study science, when you do not act wisely you are ignorant. The beast whom they load with books is not profoundly learned and wise; what knoweth his empty skull whether he carrieth firewood or books?"

"A grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man."

"A wise man in the company of those who are ignorant, has been compared to a beautiful girl in the company of blind men."

"Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant."

"I fear God, and next to God I chiefly fear him who fears him not."

"How hast thou so profound a lore attained?" "To ask another, I was ne’er ashamed."

"A little and a little collected together becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop form an inundation."

"Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore."

"Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his own fund of knowledge, makes notorious his own stock of ignorance."

"Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself, in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance."

"Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste."

"Who despises an insignificant enemy resembles him who is careless about fire."

"Science is for the cultivation of religion, not for worldly enjoyments."

"Whatever makes an impression on the heart seems lovely in the eye."

"Were the diver to think on the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl."

"When gnats act in concert they will bring down an elephant: when ants set to work, and move in a body, they can strip a fierce lion of its hide."

"Use a sweet tongue, courtesy, and gentleness, and thou mayst manage to guide an elephant with a hair."

"I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune, except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart, and beheld a man without feet, I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes, and recited: "A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table, and to him who has no means nor power a burnt turnip is [as good as] a roasted fowl.""

"If thou covetest riches, ask not but for contentment, which is an immense treasure."

"بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار دگر عضوها را نماند قرار تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی نشاید که نامت نهند آدمیBanī 'ādam a'zā-ye yek peykar-and ke dar 'āfarīn-aš ze yek gowhar-and čo 'ozvī be dard āvarad rūzgār degar 'ozvhā-rā na-mānad qarār to k-az mehnat-ē dīgarān bīqam-ī na-šāyad ke nām-at nahand ādamī"