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
There is no room for hypocrisy. Why use bitter soup for healing when sweet water is everywhere?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of authenticity and the absurdity of choosing negative experiences when positive options are available.
Rumi's quote suggests that hypocrisy and self-deception have no place in one's life. It questions why one would choose a painful or bitter experience, represented by 'bitter soup,' for healing when there are abundant positive alternatives, symbolized by 'sweet water.' The metaphor highlights the importance of seeking genuine, nourishing experiences rather than clinging to negativity or insincerity.
Themes
AuthenticityHypocrisyHealingPositivityTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational talk about the importance of being true to oneself.
More from Rumi
All quotes βThe 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
The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well; Meditation is the road to enlightenment.
Sogyal RinpocheRead
Any general statement is like a check drawn on a bank. Its value depends on what is there to meet it.
Ezra PoundRead
If you concentrate on the present, you eliminate what happened yesterday and any apprehension of what may happen tomorrow.
Denis WaitleyRead
You must have a place to which you can go in your heart, your mind, or your house, almost every day, where you do not owe anyone and where no one owes you - a place that simply allows for the blossoming of something new and promising.
Joseph CampbellRead
The passions seldom give good advice but to the interested and mercenary. Resentment generally suggests bad measures. Second thoughts and good nature will rarely, very rarely, approve the first hints of anger.
Horace WalpoleRead
Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.
Thomas A. EdisonRead