Rumi

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

The wound is the place where the light enters you.

Woman is a ray of God. She is not that earthly beloved: she is creative, not created.

If you want the moon, do not hide from the night. If you want a rose, do not hide from the thorns. If you want love, do not hide from yourself.

Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

Upon awakening, let the words Thank You flow from your lips, for this will remind you to begin your day with gratitude and compassion.

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.

It’s not whether you get knocked down, its whether you get back up.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy – but he who has shown the better temper.

The most difficult We do not deal in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.

Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

If you try to please everybody, somebody’s not going to like it.

What drives me to be who I am, to do all that I do, is not what words will be engraved for my epitaph. What drives me to be who I am, to do what I do, is not vanity, is not for adulation in the eyes of others. What drives me is my own desire to be better; to be happy. When I am dead and buried, the words above will not bring me back to life, I choose to live out my epitaph, and not just for it to be a collection of words someone has chosen to define me.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.