30 Inspirational Quotes About Life and Love from Rumi, the 13th-Century Poet and Mystic

Stay inspired with these timeless quotes by the famous poet.

Even if you don't know much about Rumi, you've likely heard one of his many inspiring quotes. Rumi was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, but his powerful words and quotes have made quite an impact in the United States—even 750 years after his passing. That's right, Rumi was born back in 1207 and passed in 1273.

Still, Rumi's quotes from hundreds upon hundreds of years ago are ones that folks can still relate to in our present day. Scholar Jawid Mojaddedi has provided insight into why Rumi’s writings and poems seem to resonate so strongly with people today: "The first of Rumi’s four main innovations is his direct address to readers in the rare second person, I think contemporary readers respond well to this directness." This, combined with his urge to teach, use of imagery and overarching optimism is a home run for people that crave such wisdom.

We've collected the 30 best Rumi quotes to help inspire you and ground you in the moments you need it the most. Covering subjects like life, love, letting go and more, there's a powerful combination of everything you need below.

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30 Best Rumi Quotes

1. "Life is a balance between holding on and letting go."

2. "The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

3. "You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?"

4. "Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it."

5. "The world is a mountain, in which your words are echoed back to you."

6. "Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form."

7. "Now is the time to unite the soul and the world. Now is the time to see the sunlight dancing as one with the shadows."

8. "Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop."

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

10. "Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen."

Rumi Quotes on Self

11. "Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside of you."

12. "What you seek is seeking you."

13. "Achieve some perfection yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others."

14. "Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion."

15. "If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?"

16. "When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy."

17. "Don’t make yourself miserable with what is to come or not to come."

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18. "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."

19. "Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom."

20. "Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart."

Top Rumi Love Quotes

21. "Love rests on no foundation. It's an endless ocean, with no beginning or end."

22. "Reason is powerless in the expression of Love."

23. "Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along."

24. "Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes."

25. "Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there."

26. "In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art."

27. "We are born of love; Love is our mother."

28. "Let your Teacher be Love itself."

29. "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

30. "Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love."

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