The Reading Room

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.”

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.”

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.”

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.”

“When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And When his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And When he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden... But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears... But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully.”

“But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.”

“Do not fear the thorns in your path, for they draw only corrupt blood.”

“And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.”

“Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit.”

“Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death.”

“Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?”

“An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.”

“You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore...But let there be spaces in your togetherness...Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not of the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.”

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.”

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.”

“You are my brother and I love you. I love you worshipping in your church, kneeling in your temple, and praying in your mosque. You and I and all are children of one religion, for the varied paths of religion are but the fingers of the loving hand of the Supreme Being, extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, anxious to receive all.”

“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”

“Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.”

“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.”

“The cup does not entice the lips unless the wine's colour is seen through the transparent crystal.”

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.”

“Every beauty and greatness in this world is created by a single thought or emotion inside a man. Every thing we see today, made by past generations, was, before its appearance, a thought in the mind of a man or an impulse in the heart of a woman.”

“We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. Even while the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.”

“Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.”

“Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.”

“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”

“The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.”

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

“Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.”

“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.”

“The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.”

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.”

“Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.”

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

“Only yesterday I was no different than them, yet I was saved. I am explaining to you the way of life of a people who say every sort of wicked thing about me because I sacrificed their friendship to gain my own soul. I left the dark paths of their duplicity and turned my eyes toward the light where there is salvation, truth, and justice. They have exiled me now from their society, yet I am content. Mankind only exiles the one whose large spirit rebels against injustice and tyranny. He who does not prefer exile to servility is not free in the true and necessary sense of freedom.”

“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

“I came here to be for all and with all, and what I do today in my solitude will be echoed tomorrow by the multitude. What I say now with one heart will be said tomorrow by thousands of hearts...”

“One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.”

“Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.”

“The Reality of The Other Person Lies Not In What He Reveals To You, But 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.”

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness.”

“Yes, there is a Nirvanah: it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.”

“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”

“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and melt into the sun?”