"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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 are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?"

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

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

"Whoever gives reverence receives reverence."

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

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

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

"If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak."

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

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

"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."

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

"Ibrahim Gamard and Rawan Farhadi, The Quatrains of Rumi (2008)"

"John Baldock, The Essence of Rumi (London: Arcturus, 2005)"

"Andrew Harvey, Teachings of Rumi (Shambhala, 1999)"

"Shahram Shiva, Hush, Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi (Jain Publishing, 1999)"

"Fatemeh Keshavarz, Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998)"

"James Fadiman and Robert Frager, Essential Sufism (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997)"

"Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi (HarperCollins, 1995)"

"Camille and Kabir Helminski, Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1996)"

"Camille and Kabir Helminski, Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1990)"

"William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (1983)"

"Reynold A. Nicholson, Rumi: Poet And Mystic (George Allen and Unwin, 1950)"

"Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1914)"

"Edward Henry Whinfield, Masnavi I Ma'navi: The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898)"

"William Falconer, in The Asiatic Journal (1840) p. 32, (1841) p. 238, (1842) p. 102 · Fraser's Magazine (April 1855) pp. 374–5"

"Reynold A. Nicholson, Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (Cambridge UP, 1898)"

"The idea that eroticism and spirituality should be separated is a travesty of both...Or read the great Persian poet Rumi...All mystical poetry is erotic, uses erotic language, because it desires fusion with God...all lovers see the beloved’s face and body as divine."

"Strange as it may seem to our Western egoism, the prospect of sharing in the general, impersonal immortality of the human soul kindles in the Sufi an enthusiasm as deep and triumphant as that of the most ardent believer in a personal life continuing beyond the grave. Jalaluddin, after describing the evolution of man in the material world and anticipating his further growth in the spiritual universe, utters a heartfelt prayer — for what? — for self-annihilation in the ocean of the Godhead."

"I once saw in an office a plaque that suggested that before we open our mouths to speak, we should make our words pass through three gates: Is it true, is it kind, and is it necessary?"

"We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us."

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

"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."

"Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving — it doesn't matter, Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times, Come, come again, come."

"The strength of strongest man can merely split a stone, The power that informs man’s soul can cleave the moon."

"I still am dark compared to the sun Though I am light compared to the dark souls of men, Therefore is my light weak that you may bear it, For you are not strong enough to bear the dazzling sun, I have, as it were, mixed honey with vinegar, To succour the sweetness of your hearts."

"My heart is weary of these weak-spirited companions, I desire the Lion of God (Ali) and Rustam son of Zal, Filings of beauty are in the possession of every one that exists, I desire that quarry and that mine of exquisite loveliness."

"Welcome soul-producing sun! when a single ray of thine hath appeared, Thousands of human souls shoot forth from black (barren) clay."

"Opposite shows up opposite as a Frank a negro."

"Let not a weakling like you censure me; What seems night to you is broad day to me, What seems a prison to you is a garden to me, Busiest occupation is rest to me, Your feet are in the mire, to me mire is rose, What to you is funeral wailing is marriage drum to me."

"I will not shun thy blow, for very crude Is the heart that ne’er burned in the fire of thine affliction, To thy praise and praisers there is no end, What atom but is reeling with thy praise?"

"Thou mouldest of foul and fair the form of a man That he may flee two leagues from the odour of foulness; Thou mak’st him a morsel of dust that he may become pure herbage, He is free from filth when Thou hast breathed into him a soul."

"From the moment you came into the world of being A ladder was placed before you that you might escape, First you were mineral, later you turned to plant, Then you became animal: how should this be a secret to you? Afterwards you were made man, with knowledge, reason, faith, Behold the body which is a portion of the dust-pit, how perfect it has grown! When you have travelled on from man, you will doubtless become an angel, After that you are done with this earth; your station is in heaven."

"Serpents’ poison is life to serpents, In relation to mankind it is death."

"Apparently thou art the ruler of thy wife like water over fire, In reality thou art ruled by and suppliant to her."