I am forever walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam,
But the sea and the shore will remain Forever.
“Who are you?”
Remembrance is a form of meeting.
Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.
My house says to me, “Do not leave me, for here dwells your past.”
And the road says to me, “Come and follow me, for I am your future.”
And I say to both my house and the road, “I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death will change all things.”
There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.
You are blind and I am deaf and dumb, so let us touch hands and understand.
The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain.
Our mind is a sponge; our heart is a stream.
The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.
A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.
Every seed is a longing.
It takes two of us to discover truth: one to utter it and one to understand it.
Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.
Poetry is not an opinion expressed. It is a song that rises from a bleeding wound or a smiling mouth.
Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness.
A poet is a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his palace trying to fashion an image out of the ashes.
“Yes, death is always the revealer.”
If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have an audience.
Poetry is wisdom that enchants the heart.
Wisdom is poetry that sings in the mind.
Inspiration will always sing; inspiration will never explain.
A great singer is he who sings our silences.
We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.
Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower. Dream your dream to the sky and it will bring you your beloved.
Love is the veil between lover and lover.
Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.
Love is a word of light, written by a hand of light, upon a page of light.
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
If you do not understand your friend under all conditions you will never understand him.
How shall my heart be unsealed unless it be broken?
Only great sorrow or great joy can reveal your truth.
You cannot consume beyond your appetite.
Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is in giving me that which you need more than I do.
You are indeed charitable when you give, and while giving, turn your face away so that you may not see the shyness of the receiver.
We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.
If your heart is a volcano how shall you expect flowers to bloom in your hands?
You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself.
Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?
Only those beneath me can envy or hate me.
I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one.
Only those above me can praise or belittle me.
I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.
When you reach the heart of life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the prophet.
If the other person laughs at you, you can pity him; but if you laugh at him you may never forgive yourself.
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.
In truth the other person is your most sensitive self given another body.
They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold;
And I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.
The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.
You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge.
I would not listen to a conqueror preaching to the conquered.
Strife in nature is but disorder longing for order.
A scientist without imagination is a butcher with dull knives and out-worn scales.
In truth we talk only to ourselves, but sometimes we talk loud enough that others may hear us.
Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light.
A root is a flower that disdains fame.
There is neither religion nor science beyond beauty.
The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.
When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.
The nearest to my heart are a king without a kingdom and a poor man who does not know how to beg.
Birth and death are the two noblest expressions of bravery.
Man is two men; one is awake in darkness, the other is asleep in light.
There lies a green field between the scholar and the poet; should the scholar cross it he becomes a wise man; should the poet cross it, he becomes a prophet.
“Wisdom! Wisdom for sale!”
Poor philosophers! They must needs sell their heads to feed their hearts.
“A bird and a feather in the bush is worth more than ten birds in the hand.”
There are only two elements here, beauty and truth; beauty in the hearts of lovers, and truth in the arms of the tillers of the soil.
Only those with secrets in their hearts could divine the secrets in our hearts.
He who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one of the seven gates of Paradise.
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Strange that creatures without backbones have the hardest shells.
It is stupid to play a role with the night and the day.
They would both laugh at you.
Love which is not always springing is always dying.
A great man has two hearts; one bleeds and the other forbears.
There must be something strangely sacred in salt.
It is in our tears and in the sea.
It is indeed misery if I stretch an empty hand to men and receive nothing; but it is hopelessness if I stretch a full hand and find none to receive.
I long for eternity because there I shall meet my unwritten poems and my unpainted pictures.
Art is a step from nature toward the Infinite.
A work of art is a mist carved into an image.
Even the hands that make crowns of thorns are better than idle hands.
Our most sacred tears never seek our eyes.
Every man is the descendant of every king and every slave that ever lived.
Every thought I have imprisoned in expression I must free by my deeds.
