Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was a Persian poet, an Islamic dervish and a Sufi mystic.
I’m pretty sure each and every one of you has heard or read some of his words at some point. Rumi is seen as a great spiritual master and poet. His work influenced and inspired many other artists, his wise words kept many others sane up to this day.
Rumi’s poetry is a series of mystical experiences – a reflection on nature’s beauty, a song, a dance, an idea, a feeling… anything that makes us human, everything we’re able to see with our eyes open or shut.
He is among the poets that show us the importance of every experience, be it good or bad. Here are 25 Rumi quotes to inspire deeper connections and give a more positive outlook on life.
“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.”
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
“What you seek is seeking you.”
“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”
“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”
“Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.”
“Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.”
“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
“Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”
“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?”
“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”
“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”
“I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.”
“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.”
“And so it is, that both the devil and the angelic spirits present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.”
“Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”
“Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”
“Reason is powerless in the expression of love.”
“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”
“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.”
“Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.”
