All Quotes

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

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

"I like to think of criticism as the highest intellectual effort that mankind is capable of, and above all, I like to think of self-criticism as the most difficult attainment of an educated man."

"I am here to speak on freedom of speech. It is a great topic, and I am going to make my speech as free as possible. But you know that this cannot be done, for when anyone announces that he is going to speak his mind freely, everyone is frightened. This shows that there is no such thing as true freedom of speech. No one can afford to let his neighbors know what he is thinking about them. Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks."

"All women's dresses, in every age and country, are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress."

"Human history is not the product of the wise direction of human reason, but is shaped by the forces of emotion—our dreams, our pride, our greed, our fears, and our desire for revenge."

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow."

"The Chinese believe that when there are too many policemen, there can be no individual liberty, when there are too many lawyers, there can be no justice, and when there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace."

"If compelled to indicate my religion on an immigration blank, I might be tempted to put down the word "Taoist," to the amazement of the customs officer who probably never heard of it."

"Our task is not so much discovery as re-discovery. What one needs is not so much thinking as remembering. Sometimes it suffices to sit quietly and listen well, when venerable men have thought before us. Constant forgettings of truths once perceived are the very charm of the human mind; the history of human thought is nothing more than the story of these forgettings and rememberings and forgettings again."

"If life is all subjective, why not be subjectively happy rather than subjectively sad?"

"There are two kinds of animals on earth. One kind minds his own business, the other minds other people's business. The former are vegetarians, like cows, sheep and thinking men. The latter are carnivorous, like hawks, tigers and men of action."

"The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach."

"These influences of my young childhood were greatest: 1, the mountain landscape, 2, my father the impossible idealist, and 3, the upringing of a closely-knit Christian home."

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials."

"The creative imagination of the Hindus has conceived no loftier and holier character than Sita; the literature of the world has not produced a higher ideal of womanly love, womanly truth, and womanly devotion."

"I strongly suspect that the average reader does not suspect India has as rich a culture, as creative an imagination and wit and humor as any China has to offer, and that India was China’s teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world’s teacher in trigonometry, quadratic equations, grammar, phonetics, Arabian Nights, animal fables, chess, as well as in philosophy, and that she inspired Boccaccio, Goethe, Herder, Schopenhauer, Emerson, and probably also old Aesop."

"A mellow understanding of life and of human nature is, and always has been, the Chinese ideal of character, and from that understanding other qualities are derived, such as pacifism, contentment, calm and strength of endurance which distinguish the Chinese character."

"To the West, it seems hardly imaginable that the relationship between man and man (which is morality) could be maintained without reference to a Supreme Being, while to the Chinese it is equally amazing that men should not, or could not, behave toward one another as decent beings without thinking of their indirect relationship through a third party."

"I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content. From a knowledge of those limitations and its richness of experience emerges a symphony of colours, richer than all, its green speaking of life and strength, its orange speaking of golden content and its purple of resignation and death."

"This is a personal testimony, a testimony of my own experience of thought and life. It is not intended to be objective and makes no claim to establish eternal truths. In fact I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the point of view is the thing. I should have liked to call it "A Lyrical Philosophy," using the word "lyrical" in the sense of being a highly personal and individual outlook..."

"It is not when he is working in the office but when he is lying idly on the sand that his soul utters, "Life is beautiful.""

"While in the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them, as anybody who has a knowledge of Chinese literature will testify."

"A vague uncritical idealism always lends itself to ridicule and too much of it might be a danger to mankind, leading it round in a futile wild-goose chase for imaginary ideals."

"It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams."

"I distrust all dead and mechanical formulas for expressing anything connected with human affairs and human personalities. Putting human affairs in exact formulas shows in itself a lack of the sense of humor and therefore a lack of wisdom."

"It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action."

"My faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest scamp on earth. Human dignity must be associated with the idea of a scamp and not with that of an obedient, disciplined and regimented soldier."

"Every moment the world and we are renewed Yet we are ignorant of this renewing for ever and aye. Life like a stream of water is renewed and renewed Though it wears the appearance of continuity in form, That seeming continuity arises from its swift renewal As when a single spark of fire is whirled round swiftly."

"The whole world is jealous for this cause That God surpasseth the world in jealousy. God is as a soul and the world is as a body And bodies derive their good and evil from souls."

"All the seventy and two heresies lurk in you, Have a care lest one day they prevail over you; He in whose breast the leaf of true faith is grown Must tremble as a leaf from fear of such a catastrophe."

"All creatures are enslaved to thought, For this cause are they sad at heart and sorrowful."

"If all dissolute men were shut up in prison They would all be temperate and devout and pious. When power of choice is absent, actions are worthless But beware lest death snatch away your capital, Your power of choice is a capital yielding profit Remember well the day of final account."

"Except in the house of communion with God there is no peace."

"Only in the night the moon shines, Only in pain of heart seek the Beloved."

"Opposites can only he know by opposites, Only through a wound is a caress understood; Certainly this world first comes into view, That we may understand the value of that eternal world; When you are released from this, you go to that; In that eternal home of delight, you are grateful."

"Nuts in plenty but no kernel in any of them, Relish is needed for devotions to bear fruit, Kernels are needed that seeds may yield trees, How can seeds without kernels become trees? Form without life is only a dream."

"Our earthly passions are a part of hell And the parts always share the nature of the whole."

"Infidels when enjoying prosperity do wrong When they are in hell, they cry ‘O our Lord!’ The prison is the hermitage of the wicked thief For when he is there, he is ever crying to God. Whereas the object of man’s being is to worship God, Hell is ordained as a place of worship for the proud."

"He was not chaff which flew on the wind, He was not water which froze in winter, He was not a comb which was broken with a hair, He was not a seed with the earth crushed, He was a treasure of gold in this dust-pit, For he valued the two worlds at a barley corn, The earthly frame he flung to the earth, Soul and intellect he bore to heaven, The pure elixir mingled with the wine-dregs, Came to the jar’s surface, and the lees settled apart. The second soul, which the vulgar know not, I protest by God that he surrendered to the Beloved."

"What need were there of stars, O humble one, To one who was guided by the light of the sun, Neither moon nor planets would be needed, By one who saw directly the sun of the truth."

"If a saint handles earth, it becomes gold If a sinner handles gold, it turns to dust, Whereas the saint is well-pleasing to God, In his actions his hand is the hand of God. But the sinner’s hand is the hand of Satan and demons, Because he is ensnared in falsity and fraud."

"Thy business is changing things and bestowing favours, My business is mistakes and forgetfulness and error, Change my mistakes and forgetlulness to knowledge I am altogether vile; make me temperate and meek. O thou that convertest salt earth into bread And bread again into the life of men, Thou makest some earth-born men as heaven And multipliest heaven-born saints on earth."

"The Worker is hidden in the workshop, Enter the workshop and behold him face to face; Since a veil is drawn over the Worker by his work, Apart from His work you cannot see Him."

"Mankind like waterfowl are sprung from the sea, the sea of soul Risen from that sea, why should the bird make here his home? Nay, we are pearls in that sea, therein we all abide, Else why does wave follow wave from the sea of soul."

"Men are as demons and lust of wealth their chain, Which drags them forth to toil in shop and field; This chain is made of their fears and anxieties, Deem not that these men have no chains upon them. It causes them to engage in labour and the chase, It forces them to toil in mines and on the sea."

"All hearts are the abodes of devils Be not deceived by devil-men."

"Your heart is as Solomon’s signet; take care That it falls not a prey to demons."

"Why does the formation of an infant take nine months, Because God’s method is to work by slow degrees. Not hurrying on like you, O raw one, Who claim to be a Shaikh whilst yet only a child."

"In the world there is nought so wondrous as the sun, But the Sun of the soul sets not and has no yesterday."