“Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” 

― Rumi, A Year With Rumi

“Most people guard against going into the fire and so end up in it. Those who love the water of pleasure and make it their devotion are cheated with this reversal. The trickery goes further. The voice of the fire tells the truth, sayin I am not fire. I am fountainhead. Come into me and don’t mind the sparks. If you are a friend of the presence, fire is your water.” 

― Rumi, A Year With Rumi

“Be suspicious of what you want.” 

― Rumi

“When you go to a garden, do you look at thorns or flowers? Spend more time with the roses and jasmine.” 

― Rumi

“When someone is counting out gold for you, don't look at your hands, or the gold. Look at the giver.” 

― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes around in another form.” 

― Rumi

“You make my dance daring enough to finish. No more timidity. Let fruit fall, and wind turn my roots up in the air, done with patient waiting.” 

― Rumi, A Year With Rumi

“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.” 

― Rumi