189 quotes by Rumi. I know, a lot of inspiration to wade through! No one captured the universal truths of the wonder and mystery of life as poetically and profoundly as the legendary 13th-century Persian poet and mystic, Rumi. His verses help us navigate life’s twists and turns – for spirits in search of their true calling.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi, or simply Rumi as we affectionately call him, was born in 1207 in what is now Afghanistan and later moved to Konya, modern-day Turkey, due to Mongol invasions. Throughout his life, until he passed away in 1273, Rumi acted as a spiritual mentor and jurist. However, today, he’s best remembered for his deeply moving and thought-provoking poetry. His most famous works, the “Mathnawi” and “Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi,” are heartfelt explorations that still captivate readers across the world.
Anchored in Sufism, Rumi’s philosophy is based on love, self-awareness, and the interconnectedness of all living things. His quotes touch on a diverse range of subjects – from the quest for self-discovery and the essence of life to the transformative nature of love and the acceptance of life’s contrasts. As we explore Rumi’s teachings, let’s remember his gentle reminder: “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.”
The Most Popular and Best Rumi Quotes About Life, Happiness and the Soul
“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ~ Rumi
“You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?” ~ Rumi
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ~ Rumi
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.” ~ Rumi
“My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.” ~ Rumi
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished.” ~ Rumi
“Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” ~ Rumi
“You are searching the world for treasure, but the real treasure is Yourself.” ~ Rumi
“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~ Rumi
“Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.” ~ Rumi
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” ~ Rumi
“Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.” ~ Rumi
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” ~ Rumi
Happiness and Joy: Rumi’s Enlightened Path to Contentment
“Be full of sorrow, that you may become a hill of joy; weep, that you may break into laughter.” ~ Rumi
“Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there.” ~ Rumi
"In this mob of I’s inside, which one is me? Hear me out. I know I’m wandering, but don’t start putting a lid on this racket. No telling what I’ll do then. Every moment I’m thrown by your story. One moment it’s happy, and I’m singing. One moment it’s sad, and I’m weeping. It turns bitter, and I pull away. But then you spill a little grace, and just like that, I’m all light. It’s not so bad, this arrangement, actually." ~ Rumi
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and attend them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honourably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.” ~ Rumi
“Patience is the key to joy.” ~ Rumi
“Isn’t it time to turn your heart into a temple of fire.” ~ Rumi
“All your anxiety is because of your desire for harmony. Seek disharmony, then you will gain peace.” ~ Rumi
“If you are seeking, seek us with joy. For we live in the kingdom of joy. But to the love of those who are clear joy, Do not stray into the neighbourhood of despair. For there are hopes: they are real, they exist. Do not go in the direction of darkness I tell you: suns exist.” ~ Rumi
Healing: Rumi’s Soothing Words for the Wounded Soul
“You must lance an ulcer to heal it. You must tear down parts of an old building to restore it, and so it is with a sensual life that has no spirit in it.” ~ Rumi
“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” ~ Rumi
“Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover, and then are taken off. That undressing, and the beautiful naked body underneath is the sweetness that comes after grief.” ~ Rumi
“I have seen the king with a face of Glory, He who is the eye and the sun of heaven, He who is the companion and healer of all beings, He who is the soul and the universe that births souls.” ~ Rumi
“Where will you plant your grief-seeds? We need ground to scrape and hoe, not the sky of unspecified desire.” ~ Rumi
Change and Transformation: Embracing Life’s Seasons Through Rumi’s Wisdom
“Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.” ~ Rumi
“I turn all thorn then, but you come back again and make my thorniness fragrant and pink and petaled.” ~ Rumi
“The cypress tree is turning green, drunk with the forest.” ~ Rumi
“The result of my life is no more than three words: I was raw, I became cooked, I was burnt.” ~ Rumi
“Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are.” ~ Rumi
“You sit here for days saying, This is strange business. You’re the strange business. You have the energy of the sun in you, but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine. You’re some weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace, so you won’t have to become coins.” ~ Rumi
“Inside of us, there’s a continual autumn. Our leaves fall and are blown out over the water.” ~ Rumi
Courage and Fear: Rumi’s Teachings on Bravery in the Face of Fear
“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.” ~ Rumi
“Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” ~ Rumi
“Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to. Don’t try to see through the distances. That’s not for human beings. Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.” ~ Rumi
“Everyone is so afraid of death, but the real Sufis just laugh: nothing tyrannizes their hearts. What strikes the oyster shell does not damage the pearl.” ~ Rumi
“Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.” ~ Rumi
“I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.” ~ Rumi
Life and Self-discovery: Inspirational Rumi Quotes on the Journey of Life
“Why should I be weary when every cell of my body is bursting with life?” ~ Rumi
“When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.” ~ Rumi
“Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty.” ~ Rumi
“It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I’ve gone and come back, I’ll find it at home.” ~ Rumi
“Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.” ~ Rumi
“Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible.” ~ Rumi
“Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty. You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods at mean-spirited roadhouses.” ~ Rumi
“Achieve some perfection yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others.” ~ Rumi
“The garden of the world has no limit except in your mind.” ~ Rumi
“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” ~ Rumi
“Even when tied in a thousand knots, the string is still but one.” ~ Rumi
“Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.” ~ Rumi
“All religions, all this singing, one song. The differences are just illusion and vanity. The sun’s light looks a little different on this wall than it does on that wall, and a lot different on this other one, but it’s still one light.” ~ Rumi
“You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.” ~ Rumi
“Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the world.” ~ Rumi
“This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.” ~ Rumi
“When someone criticizes or disagrees with you, a small ant of hatred and antagonism is born in your heart. If you do not squash that ant at once, it might grow into a snake or even a dragon.” ~ Rumi
“Patience with small details makes perfect a large work, like the universe.” ~ Rumi
“Your legs will get heavy and tired. Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you’ve grown, lifting.” ~ Rumi
“Anything which is more than our necessity is poison. It may be power, wealth, hunger, ego, greed, laziness, love, ambition, hate or anything.” ~ Rumi
“Whether one moves slowly or with speed, the one who is a seeker will be a finder.” ~ Rumi
“There is a fountain inside you. Don’t walk around with an empty bucket.” ~ Rumi
“Why do you stay in prison, when the door is so wide open?” ~ Rumi
Emotional and Spiritual Growth: Quotes by Rumi on Inner Evolution
“How can I know anything about the past or the future, when the light of the Beloved shines only Now.” ~ Rumi
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.” ~ Rumi
“I looked in temples, churches, and mosques. But I found the Divine within my heart.” ~ Rumi
“And so it is, that both the devil and the angelic spirits present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.” ~ Rumi
“He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, Live.” ~ Rumi
“Put your thoughts to sleep, do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.” ~ Rumi
“My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way.” ~ Rumi
“Never lose hope, my heart. Miracles dwell in the invisible.” ~ Rumi
“I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks.” ~ Rumi
“a great God-wrestling does on inside these wanderers.” ~ Rumi
“The Prophets accept all agony and trust it. For the water has never feared the fire.” ~ Rumi
“The lion is most handsome when looking for food.” ~ Rumi
“The heart is cooking a pot of food for you. Be patient until it is cooked.” ~ Rumi
“If you yearn for holy felicity, shed your arrogance and become a seeker of hearts.” ~ Rumi
“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..” ~ Rumi
“And even if this world burns up hidden harps will still play here.” ~ Rumi
“If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” ~ Rumi
“Is what I say true? Say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” ~ Rumi
“Grace comes to forgive and then forgive again.” ~ Rumi
“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment brings intuitive knowledge.” ~ Rumi
“I do not know who lives here in my chest, or why the smile comes. I am not myself, more the bare green knob of a rose that lost every leaf and petal to the morning wind.” ~ Rumi
“Don’t put blankets over the drum! Open completely. Let your spirit ear listen to the green dome’s passionate murmur.” ~ Rumi
Love Yourself: Rumi’s Perspectives on Self-love and Self-worth
“Dance until you shatter yourself.” ~ Rumi
“Water the fruit trees and don’t water the thorns.” ~ Rumi
“You are not one you are a thousand. Just light your lantern.” ~ Rumi
“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” ~ Rumi
“If you knew yourself for even one moment, if you could just glimpse your most beautiful face, maybe you wouldn’t slumber so deeply in that house of clay. Why not move into your house of joy and shine into every crevice! For you are the secret Treasure-bearer, and always have been. Didn’t you know?” ~ Rumi
“The wealth within you, your essence, is your kingdom.” ~ 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
“Let yourself become living poetry.” ~ Rumi
“The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are.” ~ Rumi
“Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.” ~ Rumi
“How will you know the difficulties of being human, if you’re always flying off to blue perfection.” ~ Rumi
“In each moment the fire rages, it will burn away a hundred veils. And carry you a thousand steps toward your goal.” ~ Rumi
Mindfulness: Rumi Quotes to Live in the Moment
“When I am silent, I fall into the place where everything is music.” ~ Rumi
“Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen.” ~ Rumi
“The mind, this globe of awareness, is a starry universe that when you push off with your foot, a thousand new roads become clear, as you yourself do at dawn, sailing through the light.” ~ Rumi
“Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought.” ~ Rumi
“Look at the moon in the sky, not the one in the lake.” ~ Rumi
“Be an empty page, untouched by words.” ~ Rumi
“Sit, be still, and listen.” ~ Rumi
“Whosoever knoweth the power of the dance, dwelleth in God.” ~ Rumi
“The world is a mountain, in which your words are echoed back to you.” ~ Rumi
Nature and Beauty: Rumi’s Reflections on the Aesthetics and Wisdom of the Natural World
“The rose’s rarest essence lives in the thorns.” ~ Rumi
“Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.” ~ Rumi
“Tonight the moon kisses the stars.” ~ Rumi
“Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.” ~ Rumi
“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” ~ Rumi
“Birdsong brings relief to my longing. I am just as ecstatic as they are, but with nothing to say.” ~ Rumi
“Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins.” ~ Rumi
“If these poems repeat themselves, then so does Spring.” ~ Rumi
“Lightning, your presence from the ground to sky, no one knows what becomes of me when you take me so quickly.” ~ Rumi
“To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.” ~ Rumi
“The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.” ~ Rumi
“If the foot of the trees were not tied to the earth, they would be pursuing me. For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens. ” ~ Rumi
“Rush out in the rain to be soaked with the sky.” ~ Rumi
Pain and Overcoming Obstacles: Rumi’s Encouragement for Life’s Toughest Challenges
“I am iron resisting the most enormous magnet there is.” ~ Rumi
“Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.” ~ Rumi
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.” ~ Rumi
“The core of the seen and unseen universe smiles, but remember smiles come best from those who weep. Lightning, then the rain-laughter.” ~ Rumi
“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.” ~ Rumi
“What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.” ~ Rumi
“Sea waves cast foam, which forms a barrier, then They draw back just to stretch ahead again. Listen now, what precisely blocks the way? Perhaps it is your heart that’s gone astray?” ~ Rumi
Poetry and Expression: Rumi’s Art of Communicating the Depths of the Soul
“Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.” ~ Rumi
“You consider issues, but not deeply enough.
Your spring is frozen. Faith is flowing.
Don’t try to forge cold iron.
Study David, the ironsmith, and dancer, and musician.
Move into the sun. You’re wrapped in fantasy
and inner mumbling. When spirit enters, a man begins to wander freely,
Escaped and overrunning through the garden plants,
Spontaneous and soaking in.
Now a miracle story…” ~ Rumi
“You came suddenly shook me from my sleep and vanished.
In my heart, you rose like the moon
but as I glanced at you, you disappeared.
Having had a glimpse of Your garden,
I have no more patience to endure my existence….
Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
no light and no land anywhere,
cloud cover thick. I try to stay
just above the surface, yet I’m already under
and living within the ocean.” ~ Rumi
“Listen to presences inside poems,
Let them take you where they will.
Follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises.” ~ Rumi
“Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge of driftwood along the beach, wanting! They derive from a slow and powerful root that we can’t see. Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.” ~ Rumi
“You are the source of the sun.
And I am the willow’s shadow.
Oh, you have struck me on the head,
Wretch that I am, on fire, am I.” ~ Rumi
“You think of yourself
as a citizen of the universe.
You think you belong
to this world of dust and matter.” ~ Rumi
“Into my heart’s night.
Along a narrow way.
I groped; and lo!
The light,
An infinite land of day.” ~ Rumi
Purpose and Following Your Passion: Short Rumi Quotes on Living with Intent
“Purify your eyes, and see the pure world. Your life will fill with radiant forms.” ~ Rumi
“Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. When the ocean is searching for you, don’t walk into the river. Listen to the ocean.” ~ Rumi
“Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love.” ~ Rumi
“You will learn by reading, But you will understand with love.” ~ Rumi
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” ~ Rumi
“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.” ~ Rumi
“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.” ~ Rumi
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” ~ Rumi
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” ~ Rumi
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” ~ Rumi
“Respond to every call that excites your spirit.” ~ Rumi
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” ~ Rumi
“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” ~ Rumi
“Friend, our closeness is this: anywhere you put your foot, feel me in the firmness under you.” ~ Rumi
Self-Development and Growth: Advancing Personal Evolution Through Rumi’s Quotes and Wisdom
“Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you..” ~ Rumi
“Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape.” ~ Rumi
“Ignorance is God’s prison. Knowing is God’s palace.” ~ Rumi
“Work. Keep digging your well. Water is there somewhere.” ~ Rumi
“When I am silent, I have thunder hidden inside.” ~ Rumi
“If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.” ~ Rumi
“The source of now is here.” ~ Rumi
“What does this patch-sewing mean you ask? Eating and drinking. The heavy cloak of the body is always getting torn. You patch it with food and other ego-satisfactions.” ~ Rumi
“Be like a tree. Let the dead leaves drop.” ~ Rumi
“Let the waters settle and you will see the moon and the stars mirrored in your own being.” ~ Rumi
“You’ve gotten drunk on so many kinds of wine. Taste this. It won’t make you wild. It’s fire. Give up, if you don’t understand by this time that your living is firewood.” ~ Rumi
“When your love contracts in anger, the atmosphere itself feels threatening. But when you’re expansive, no matter what the weather, you’re in an open, windy field with friends.” ~ Rumi
“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.” ~ Rumi
“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ~ Rumi
“You’ve been walking the ocean’s edge, holding up your robes to keep them dry. You must dive naked under, and deeper under, a thousand times deeper.” ~ Rumi
“Dance in the middle of fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~ Rumi
“Anyone who genuinely and consistently with both hands looks for something will find it.” ~ Rumi
“Don’t knock on any random door like a beggar. Reach your long hand out to another door, beyond where you go on the street, the street where everyone says, How are you? and no one says How aren’t you.” ~ Rumi
“There’s a hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness. We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything, no music…. When you’re full of food and drink, Satan sits where your spirit should….” ~ Rumi
“What I most want is to spring out of this personality, then to sit apart from that leaping. I’ve lived too long where I can be reached.” ~ Rumi
“You feel it, don’t you?” ~ Rumi
Soul and Spirituality: Rumi’s Profound Exploration of Inner Depth and Divine Connection
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. Set your life on fire.” ~ Rumi
“Now is the time to unite the soul and the world. Now is the time to see the sunlight dancing as one with the shadows.” ~ Rumi
“Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.” ~ Rumi
“If the light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” ~ Rumi
“Listen! Clam up your mouth and be silent like an oyster shell, for that tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul, my friend. When the lips are silent, the heart has a hundred tongues.” ~ Rumi
“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” ~ Rumi
“Come out here where the roses have opened. Let soul and world meet.” ~ Rumi
“All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.” ~ Rumi
“Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.” ~ Rumi
“What is planted in each person’s soul will sprout.” ~ Rumi
“I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.” ~ Rumi
“There is a life force within your soul, seek that life. There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine. O traveller, if you are in search of that, don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek that.” ~ Rumi
Spiritual Journey: Rumi’s Guidance on the Path Towards Spiritual Enlightenment.
“Why are you knocking at every other door? Go, knock at the door of your own heart.” ~ Rumi
“Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love.” ~ Rumi
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” ~ Rumi
“It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.” ~ Rumi
“Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.” ~ Rumi
“Whatever purifies you is the right path, I will not try to define it.” ~ Rumi
“This drunkenness began in some other tavern. When I get back around to that place, I’ll be completely sober.” ~ Rumi
“Rise up nimbly and go on your strange journey to the ocean of meanings…. Leave and don’t look away from the sun as you go, in whose light you’re sometimes crescent, sometimes full.” ~ Rumi
“Come, whoever you are! Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. This is not a caravan of despair. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken your vow a thousand times, still and yet again come!” ~ Rumi
Themes and Topics: What Are Rumi’s Quotes All About?
The poetry and quotes from Rumi cover a broad range of themes, such as self-discovery, love, spirituality, the human condition, and our connection to the universe. A recurring motif is the emphasis on the transformational power of love and self-reflection, often symbolized through metaphors like dance, light, and nature.
Rumi urges us to unfold our own myths and realize our potential, highlighted in quotes like “You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?” and “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
Furthermore, Rumi’s work explores the dance between opposites – joy and sorrow, light and darkness, life and death – and encourages acceptance of these as part of our human experience.
Teachings: What Can We Learn From These Rumi Quotes?
Rumi’s quotes carry profound teachings about self-awareness, inner peace, and resilience. His wisdom encourages us to turn inward and embark on a journey of self-discovery, as illustrated in quotes like “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.
Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” He also imparts the importance of mindfulness and present-moment awareness, reminding us that “the entire universe is inside you” and urging us to live where we fear to live.
Additionally, Rumi’s teachings offer solace during times of struggle or grief, suggesting that these experiences may serve as catalysts for personal growth and illumination.
Putting Into Practice: How Can We Apply Rumi’s Wisdom In Our Own Lives?
Applying Rumi’s wisdom in our daily lives involves cultivating self-awareness, embracing our emotions, and recognizing the interconnectedness of all things. As Rumi suggests, we must first seek to change ourselves before attempting to change the world. This might involve practicing mindfulness, nurturing compassion for ourselves and others, or fostering a sense of curiosity about our inner world. Furthermore, Rumi’s quotes invite us to find beauty and learning in our struggles, reminding us that “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Finally, embodying Rumi’s wisdom might involve recognizing the divinity within ourselves and others, and nurturing a sense of oneness with the universe around us. As Rumi beautifully puts it, “You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
