Quotes from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“She loved him so much she concealed his name in many phrases, the inner meanings known only to her.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“You had better run from me. My words are fire.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Where the lips are silent the heart has a thousand tongues.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“If you want to be more alive, love is the truest health.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“People who repress desires
often turn, suddenly,
into hypocrites.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Love is an open secret, the most obvious thing in the world and the most hidden, with no why to how it keeps its mystery.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“A servant wants to be rewarded for what he does. A lover wants only to be in love's presence, that ocean whose depth will never be known.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“There is little one can say about love. It has to be lived, and it's always in motion.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Someone who does not run toward the allure of love walks a road where nothing lives.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“You could string a hundred endless days together,
My soul would find no comfort from this pain.
You laugh at my tale? You may be educated
But you haven’t learned to love till you’re insane”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“A pen went scribbling along. When it tried to write love, it broke.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“This is what love does and continues to do. It tastes like honey to adults and milk to children.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“IGNORANCE

I didn’t know love would make me this
crazy, with my eyes
like the river Ceyhun
carrying me in its rapids
out to sea,where every bit
of shattered boat
sinks to the bottom.

An alligator lifts its head and swallows
the ocean, then the ocean
floor becomes
a desert covering
the alligator in
sand drifts.

Changes do
happen. I do not know how,
or what remains of what
has disappeared
into the absolute.

I hear so many stories
and explanations, but I keep quiet,
because I don’t know anything,
and because something I swallowed
in the ocean
has made me completely content
with ignorance.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Don't make the body do what the spirit does best, and don't put a big load on the spirit that the body could easily carry.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“The feelings trembled and flapped in his chest like a bird newly put in a cage.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“THIS TORTURE

Why should we tell you our love stories
when you spill them together like blood in the dirt?

Love is a pearl lost on the ocean floor,
or a fire we can’t see,

but how does saying that
push us through the top of the head into
the light above the head?

Love is not
an iron pot, so this boiling energy
won’t help.

Soul, heart, self.
Beyond and within those
is one saying,

How long before I’m free of this torture!”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“From "Blasphemy and the Core"

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Let soul speak with the silent articulation of a face.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give
this love to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups!
They swim in the huge, fluid freedom.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“First, when I was apart from you,
this world did not exist, nor any other.

Second, whatever I was looking for
was always you.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“They fell to, on the ground. You’ve seen a baker
rolling dough. He kneads it gently at first,
then more roughly. He pounds it on the board.
It softly groans under his palms.

Now he spreads
it out and rolls it flat. Then he bunches it,
and rolls it all the way out again,

thin.
Now he adds water and mixes it well.

Now salt,
and a little more salt. Now he shapes itdelicately to its final shape and slides itinto the oven, which is already hot.
You remember breadmaking!

This is how your desire
tangles with a desired one.

And it’s not justa metaphor for a man and a woman making love.
Warriors in battle do this too.

A great mutual embrace
is always happening between the eternal
and what dies, between essence and accident.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Lovers move like lightning and wind.
No contest.
Theologians mumble, rumble-dumble, necessity and free will, while lover and beloved
pull themselves into each other.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Your faces are very beautiful,
but they are wooden cages.

You had better run from me.
My words are fire.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“You’ve so distracted me, your absence fans my love. Don’t ask how. Then you come near. “Do not…” I say, and “Do not…,” you answer. Don’t ask why this delights me.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“I Have Vanished In the early morning, A lover asked her beloved, “Do you love me more than yourself?” “More than myself? For sure I have no self any more— I am you already. The ‘I’ has gone; the ‘you’ has come about. Even my identity is gone. The answer is taken for granted. ‘You and I’ has no meaning. The ‘I’ has vanished like a drop into an ocean of honey.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“Love is a madman,

working his wild schemes, tearing off his clothes,
running through the mountains, drinking poison,
and now quietly choosing annihilation.”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

“What sort of person says that he or she wants to be polished and pure, then complains about being handled roughly?”
― Rumi, quote from The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

About the author

Popular quotes

“Perhaps you have noticed that even in the slightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in different ways.”
― Black Elk, quote from Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

“Next you will say that you don’t intend to have more than one house in the country!’ ‘Nay, I shan’t say that! I want one in Leicestershire.’ ‘Oh, in that case there’s no more to be said, for I’ve set my heart on one in the moon!’ ‘You don’t mean that, love! Nay then, you can’t have thought!’ he expostulated. ‘It’s much too far from town!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from The Unknown Ajax

“You’re just saying that so I’ll kiss you,” I replied.
“No. I’m sayin ’ it ‘cause it’s true. Though, I’m also sayin’ it so you’ll kiss me. But mostly I’m sayin’ it so you’ll fuck me.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Rock Chick Revolution

“Steven’s words slush together as he gets to his feet. “Crossing this one off the bucket list.” Then he
unbuckles his belt and grabs the waist of his pants—yanking the suckers down to his ankles—tighty
whities and all.
Every guy in the car holds up his hands to try to block the spectacle. We groan and complain. “My
eyes! They burn!”
“Put the boa constrictor back in his cage, man.”
“This is not the ass I planned on seeing tonight.”
Our protests fall on deaf ears. Steven is a man on a mission. Wordlessly, he squats and shoves his lilywhite
ass out the window—mooning the gaggle of grannies in the car next to us.
I bet you thought this kind of stuff only happened in movies.
He grins while his ass blows in the wind for a good ninety seconds, ensuring optimal viewage. Then
he pulls his slacks up, turns around, and leans out the window, laughing. “Enjoying the full moon, ladies?”
Wow. Steven usually isn’t the type to visually assault the elderly.
Without warning, his crazy cackling is cut off. He’s silent for a beat, then I hear him choke out a single
strangled word.
“Grandma?”
....
Matthew and I wave and smile and in fourth-grader-like, singsong harmony call out, “Hi, Mrs.
Reinhart.”
She shakes one wrinkled fist in our direction. Then her poofy-haired companion in the backseat flips
us the bird. I’m pretty sure it’s the funniest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.
The two of us collapse back into our seats, laughing hysterically.”
― Emma Chase, quote from Tied

“And even though his brother taunted him, Jared never took his eyes off her. Her heart soared! He’d come for her! He hadn’t abandoned her. She was going to have quite a few angry words with him later, but for now, since her Jared was here, she knew they would be all right.”
― Chanda Hahn, quote from Fable

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.