Rudyard Kipling

I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. The other places don’t count. Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Be occupied, then, with what you really value and let the thief take something else.

Death | Earth | Grace | Rage |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.

Dawn | Enough | Grief | Music | Silence | Thought | Wonder | Thought |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

For ages you have come and gone courting this delusion. For ages you have run from the pain and forfeited the ecstasy. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. Although you appear in earthly form your essence is pure Consciousness. You are the fearless guardian of Divine Light. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. When you lose all sense of self the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish. Lose yourself completely, Return to the root of the root of your own soul. You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God, but you turned your sight to the empty show of this world. Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little? So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. Why are you so enchanted by this world when a mine of gold lies within you? Open your eyes and come - Return to the root of the root of your own soul. You were born from the rays of God's Majesty when the stars were in their perfect place. How long will you suffer from the blows of a nonexistent hand? So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. You are a ruby encased in granite. How long will you deceive us with this outer show? O friend, we can see the truth in your eyes! So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. After one moment with that glorious Friend you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic. Your eyes were sweet and full of fire. Come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern has handed you an eternal cup, And God in all His glory is pouring the wine. So come! Drink! Return to the root of the root of your own soul. Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are that. Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are that. The road that leads to the City is endless; Go without head and feet and you'll already be there. What else could you be? You are That.

Better |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Any soul that drank the nectar of your passion was lifted. From that water of life he is in a state of elation. Death came, smelled me, and sensed your fragrance instead. From then on, death lost all hope of me.

Death | Disguise |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Any wine will get you high. Judge like a king, and choose the purest, the ones unadulterated with fear, or some urgency about what's needed.

Death | Hope | Life | Life | Passion | Soul |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

If ten people want to enter a house, and only nine are finding their way in, a tenth should not say, It was meant to God. ‘He should find out what its shortcomings.’

God | Love | Will | God |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Wash the dust from your Soul and Heart with wisdom’s water.

Body | Death | Love | Non-existence | Nothing | Speech | Time | Will | Worry | Poem |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost.

Better | Day | Story |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?

Reflection |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

The wave of At-last came along and caulked the body's ship; when the ship is wrecked once more, the turn of union and encounter will come.

Reflection |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

There is no worse sickness for the soul, O you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection. The heart and eyes must bleed a lot before self-complacency falls away.

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

There’s a morning when presence comes over your soul. You sing like a rooster in your earth-colored shape. Your heart hears and, no longer frantic, begins to dance.

Dawn | Soul |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

The rain-weeping and the sun burning twine together to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot and your grief glistening, so your life will stay fresh. Cry easily like a little child.

Agony | Trust |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.

Pain | Wants |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.

Dawn | Soul |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Nothing can help me but that beauty. There was a dawn I remember when my soul heard something from your soul. I drank water from your spring and felt the current take me.

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

The lowness of grasses. Never brag of being strong. The axe doesn't worry how thick the branches are. It cuts them to pieces. But not the leaves. It leaves the leaves alone.

Advice | Giving | Love | Man | Trouble |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.

Will |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives. This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth. To be one with the truth for just a moment, Is worth more than the world and life itself.