Rumi

Keep the company of lovers only.
Don’t even think of mingling with mean people.
Every group calls you to itself. Be careful!
The crow leads you to the ruins; the parrot to sweet home.

Love is the freedom of spirit – humbleness and bravery together.

We are lovers of love.
Submission to a creed is something else.
We are poor ants, collecting love.
Solomon’s kingly life is something else.
In our longing, we have pale faces and torn hearts to offer.
If you desire a fashion market, go somewhere else.

Walk on the spiritual path, even though it is never-ending.
Watching at a distance is not bravery.
You can master this path by living in your heart.
The life of the flesh is just animal lust.

Love cannot be learned or taught; love comes as grace.

If you want your soul to be nourished and fulfilled;
don’t go to sleep.
Let the loving fire of the Beloved burn you;
don’t go to sleep.
For hundreds of nights you have slept; you know the outcome.
Do yourself a Divine favor: Tonight until dawn
don’t go to sleep

When I drink water with such intense thirst,
I see your graceful face on water.

Sometimes I call you my wine, sometimes my cup;
sometimes pure gold, sometimes silvery stone;
sometimes my bait, my trap or my prey.
All these I call you because I like to keep your name in silence.

When you look outward, you see the human forms.
You see strange people from West and East.
God said, “Return to me.” How do you return?
Look inward: You will see beyond the human forms.

You have come from a heavenly home.
You have an idea of the pure world you belong to.
Alas! You only see your image in this clay form.
That is how you have forgotten your origin.