My dear heart, never think you are better than others. Listen to their sorrows with compassion. If you want peace, don't harbor bad thoughts, do not gossip and don't teach what you do not know.
RumiRead
I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, 'It tastes sweet, does it not?' 'You've caught me,' grief answered, 'and you've ruined my business. How can I sell sorrow, when you know it's a blessing?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the paradox of grief, suggesting that even sorrow can have a sweet or positive aspect when understood deeply.
This quote by Rumi presents a deep and insightful commentary on the nature of grief. It illustrates how sorrow, often perceived as a purely negative experience, can also be recognized as a blessing that brings wisdom and growth. By personifying grief, Rumi invites us to reconsider our relationships with our emotions, acknowledging that through suffering we may find sweetness and value, thus changing our perspective on hardships.
Themes
GriefSorrowBlessingPerspectiveEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
During a talk about overcoming loss, this quote can serve to highlight the unexpected benefits of grief.
More from Rumi
All quotes →The Law of Wonder rules my life at last, _x000D_ ...I burn each second of my life to Love _x000D_ Each second of my life burns out in Love _x000D_ In each leaping second Love lives afresh.
RumiRead
Lovers have heartaches _x000D_ That can't be cured by drugs _x000D_ Or sleep, _x000D_ Or games, _x000D_ But only by seeing their beloved.
RumiRead
Every fragile beauty, every perfect forgotten sentence, you grieve their going away, but that is not how it is. Where they come from never goes dry. It is an always flowing spring.
RumiRead
Whatever you keep hidden in your heart, God _x000D_ manifests in you outwardly. Whatever the root of _x000D_ the tree feeds on in secret, affects the bough and _x000D_ the leaf.
RumiRead
Come on sweetheart let's adore one another before there is no more of you and me
RumiRead
Similar quotes
Scriptures were written, not to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints.
Matthew HenryRead
Man is a special being, and if left to himself, in an isolated condition, would be one of the weakest creatures; but associated with his kind, he works wonders.
Daniel WebsterRead
Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
Winston ChurchillRead
Denunciations of the manipulativeness of advertisers can unfortunately all too easily be turned on their heads into denunciations of the gullibility of consumers. Both are forms of scapegoating, neither accomplishes anything.
J. M. CoetzeeRead
Those who dare to interpret God's will must never claim Him as an asset for one nation or group rather than another. War springs from the love and loyalty which should be offered to God being applied to some God substitute, one of the most dangerous being nationalism.
Robert RuncieRead