A craftsman pulled a reed from the seedbed, cut holes in it, and called it a human being. Since then, it's been wailing a tender agony of parting, never mentioning the skill that gave it life as a flute

— Jalaluddin Rumi

A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.

— Jalaluddin Rumi

All the tears which we creatures shed for Him are not tears as many think but pearls....

— Jalaluddin Rumi

A moment of happiness, you and I'm sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and I. We feel the flowing water of life here, you and I, with the garden's beauty and the birds singing. The stars will be watching us, and we will show them what it is to be a thin crescent moon. You and I unsolved, will be together, indifferent to idle speculation, you and I. The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugars we laugh together, you and I. In one form upon this earth, and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

— Jalaluddin Rumi

And so it is, that both the Devil and the angelic Spirit present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice. There is an invisible strength within us; when it recognizes two opposing objects of desire, it grows stronger.

— Jalaluddin Rumi

And watch two men washing clothes, one makes dry clothes wet. The other makes wet clothes dry. They seem to be thwarting each other, but their work is a perfect harmony. Every holy person seems to have a different doctrine and practice, but there's really only one work.

— Jalaluddin Rumi

And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?

— Jalaluddin Rumi

An eye is meant to see things. The soul is here for its own joy. A head has one use: For loving a true love. Feet: To chase after. Love is for vanishing into the sky. The mind, for learning what men have done and tried to do. Mysteries are not to be solved: The eye goes blind when it only wants to see why. A lover is always accused of something. But when he finds his love, whatever was lost in the looking comes back completely changed.

— Jalaluddin Rumi

Anyone who knows me, should learn to know me again;For I am like the Moon, you will see me with new face every day.

— Jalaluddin Rumi

A servant wants to be rewarded for what he does. A lover wants only to be in love's presence, that ocean whose depth will never be known.

— Jalaluddin Rumi