Great Throughts Treasury

"Friends are enemies sometimes, and enemies friends."

"Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness doesn't reach into majesty. You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods at mean-spirited roadhouses. Don't wait any longer..."

"Give your weakness to one who helps."

"Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave ’til it gets to shore. You need more help than you know."

"Giving thanks for abundance is sweeter than the abundance itself."

"God calls himself Baseer [Observant], so that the knowledge that He is watching you may keep you from sinning."

"Go back, go back to sleep. Yes, you are allowed. You who have no Love in your heart, you can go back to sleep. The power of Love is exclusive to us, you can go back to sleep. I have been burnt by the fire of Love. You who have no such yearning in your heart, go back to sleep. The path of Love, has seventy-two folds and countless facets. Your love and religion is all about deceit, control and hypocrisy, go back to sleep. I have torn to pieces my robe of speech, and have let go of the desire to converse. You who are not naked yet, you can go back to sleep."

"God has allowed some magical reversal to occur, so that you see the scorpion pit as an object of desire, and all the beautiful expanse around it, as dangerous and swarming with snakes."

"God works in mysterious ways. Things may look good outwardly, but there may be evil contained inside. Let no one be deluded by pride that he himself has conceived good ideas or done good deeds. If everything were as it seemed, the Prophet would not have cried out with such illuminated and illuminating perspicacity, Show me things as they are! You make things appear beautiful when in reality they are ugly; You make things appear ugly when in reality they are beautiful. Show us therefore each thing as it is lest we fall into a snare and be ever errant."

"Good and bad are mixed. If you don't have both, you don't belong with us."

"Half-heartedness doesn't reach into majesty. You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods at mean-spirited roadhouses."

"God is pleased when your love realizes its part of something oceanic and begins to move with the whole"

"God picks up the reed-flute world and blows. Each note is a need coming through one of us, a passion, a longing-pain. Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated, and let your note be clear. Don't try to end it. Be your note. I'll show you how it's enough. Go up on the roof at night in this city of the soul. Let everyone climb on their roofs and sing their notes! Sing loud!"

"Hall of Love has ten thousand swords. Don't be afraid to use one."

"Hangovers come with love, yet love's the cure for hangovers."

"He answered, 'It is thou.' 'Enter,' said the voice, 'for I am within."

"Have you ever gotten breathless before from a beautiful face, for I see you there."

"He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, ‘Live!'"

"Hardship may dishearten at first, but every hardship passes away. All despair is followed by hope; all darkness is followed by sunshine."

"Hear Blessings dropping their blossoms around you."

"Heart, be brave. If you cannot be brave, just go. Love's glory is not a small thing."

"Hear this if you can: If you want to reach him you have to go beyond yourself and when you finally arrive at the land of absence. Be silent don’t say a thing Ecstasy, not words, is the language spoken there"

"He is like a man using a candle to look for the sun."

"How can I know anything about the past or the future, when the light of the Beloved shines only Now."

"How did you get here? Close your eyes and surrender."

"Here is a relationship booster that is guaranteed to work: Every time your spouse or lover says something stupid make your eyes light up as if you just heard something brilliant."

"Hold on to the reins of Love and don’t be afraid. Hold on to the real behind the false and don’t be afraid."

"How long will you think about this painful life? How long will you think about this harmful world? The only thing it can take from you is your body. Don't say all this rubbish and stop thinking."

"How could you reach the pearl by only looking at the sea? If you seek the pearl, be a diver: the diver needs several qualities: he must trust his rope and his life to the Friend's hand, he must stop breathing, and he must jump."

"How should Spring bring forth a garden on hard stone? Become earth, that you may grow flowers of many colors. For you have been heart-breaking rock. Once, for the sake of experiment, be earth!"

"How will you know the difficulties of being human, if you're always flying off to blue perfection?"

"How will you know the difficulties of being human, if you are always flying off to blue perfection? Where will you plant your grief seeds? Workers need ground to scrape and hoe, not the sky of unspecified desire."

"Hundreds have looked for you and died searching in this garden where you hide behind the scenes. But this pain is not for those who come as lovers. You are easy to find here. You are in the breeze and in this river of wine."

"Hungry, you're a dog, angry and bad-natured. having eaten your fill, you become a carcass; you lie down like a wall, senseless. At one time a dog, at another time a carcass, how will you run with lions, or follow the saints?"

"I always thought that I was me - but no, I was you and never knew it."

"I am a drunkard from another kind of tavern. I dance to a silent tune. I am the symphony of stars."

"I am amazed at the seeker of purity who when it's time to be polished complains of rough handling."

"I am a patient of Love you are like medicine for me."

"I am an ark in the swift flood of time, and my companions, a fellowship. Who throws in with us sails into light."

"I am burning. If anyone lacks tinder, let him set his rubbish ablaze with my fire."

"I am iron resisting the most enormous magnet there is."

"I am dying into your mystery, and dying, I am now no other than that mystery. I open to your majesty as an orchard welcomes rain, and twenty times that."

"I am the glorious sun, the ocean laden with pearls. Within my heart is the grandeur of heaven."

"I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world; But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world."

"I am weary of personal worrying, in love with the art of madness."

"I am so close, I may look distant. So completely mixed with you, I may look separate. So out in the open, I appear hidden. So silent, because I am constantly talking with you."

"I am your moon and your moonlight too I am your flower garden and your water too I have come all this way, eager for you Without shoes or shawl I want you to laugh To kill all your worries To love you To nourish you."

"I burn away; laugh; my ashes are alive! I die a thousand times: My ashes dance back- A thousand new faces."

"I cannot sleep in your presence In your absence, tears prevent me you watch me my beloved on each sleepiness night and Only you see the difference."

"I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks."