Great Throughts Treasury

"You may break a mosque, you may break a temple, you may break any holy place, but you must not break the human heart, because there the Lord Himself dwells."

"Totally annihilate yourself if you want to acquire divinity."

"All this talk and turmoil and noise and movement and desire is outside of the veil; within the veil is silence and calm and rest. "

"I went to a wilderness, love had rained and had covered earth, as feet penetrate snow, I found my feet covered with love. I stood with the pious and I didn’t find any progress with them. I stood with the warriors in the cause and I didn’t find a single step of progress with them. Then I said, ‘O Allah, what is the way to You?’ and Allah said, ‘Leave yourself and come.’ "

"Twelve years I have been smith of myself, until I have made of myself a clear mirror."

"In the fire of knowledge, of love, burn up your ego, your individuality, and smear its ashes on your body."

"I desire not to desire, for my will is without value, since I am ignorant in any case. Therefore choose Thou for me what thou knowest to be best and do not put my perdition in what my autonomy and free choice prefer."

"I never saw any lamp shining more brilliantly than the lamp of silence."

"They asked Bayazid, “When does a man become a man?” He said, “When he knows the mistakes of his self and he busies himself in correcting them.”"