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.
In the slaughterhouse of love, they kill only the best, none of the weak or deformed. Don't run away from this dying. Whoever's not killed for love is dead meat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True love often involves pain and sacrifice, and only the strongest emotions can survive it.
Rumi's quote speaks to the intensity and challenges of love, suggesting that real love demands a fierce vulnerability and strength. It implies that love can be a transformative experience, where only those who endure the struggles and trials of deep affection and connection are truly alive and enriched by it. In the metaphorical 'slaughterhouse,' the weak cannot survive the profound impact of love, and those who shy away from the intensity of emotional experiences are left untouched and unfulfilled.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding toast when discussing the challenges and joys of marriage.
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.
Lovers have heartaches _x000D_ That can't be cured by drugs _x000D_ Or sleep, _x000D_ Or games, _x000D_ But only by seeing their beloved.
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.
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.
Come on sweetheart let's adore one another before there is no more of you and me
Similar quotes
You will always go into that tent. You will see her scar and wonder where she got it. You will always be amazed at how one woman can have so much black hair. You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast. You will always run away with her. You will always lose her. You will always be a fool. You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. You have already done all of this and will do it again.
Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain _x000D_ shaking ancient oaks.
That's the very reason why love is eternal, because it is forever renewed. Passions die, love remains.
There are few things in life that bring as much joy as the joy that comes from assisting another improve his or her life. That joy is increased when those efforts help someone understand the teachings of the Savior and that person decides to obey them, is converted, and joins His Church.
When you are in love, things make even more sense, he thought.
Mankind have love, animals have affection. The harmonious and beautiful world is revealed.