Shafiqa Shukor > Shafiqa's Quotes

“Some women have a weakness for shoes... I can go barefoot if necessary. I have a weakness for books.”
― Oprah Winfrey

“There are few sights sadder than a ruined book.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

“A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is a wrong to his family. He cheats them! Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it.”
― Henry Ward Beecher, Eyes and ears

“She closed the book and put her cheek against it. There was still an odor of a library on it, of dust, leather, binding glue, and old paper, one book carrying the smell of hundreds.”
― Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

“Beware of books. They are more than innocent assemblages of paper and ink and string and glue. If they are any good, they have the spirit of the author within. Authors are rogues and ruffians and easy lays. They are gluttons for sweets and savories. They devour life and always want more. They have sap, spirit, sex. Books are panderers. The Jews are not wrong to worship books. A real book has pheromones and sprouts grass through its cover.”
― Erica Jong, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life

“There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they can't hope.

The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Whoever's calm and sensible is insane!”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.

Don't think all ecstasies
are the same!

Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“I don't want learning, or dignity, or respectability. I want this music, and this dawn, and the warmth of your cheek against mine.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Soul, if you want to learn secrets,

your heart must forget about
shame
 and dignity.
You are God's lover,

yet you worry
what people
are saying.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“I will be waiting here....
For your silence to break,
For your soul to shake,
For your love to wake!”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“You are so weak. Give up to grace.
The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore.
You need more help than you know.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“You're water. We're the millstone.
You're wind. We're dust blown up into shapes.
You're spirit. We're the opening and closing
of our hands. You're the clarity.
We're the language that tries to say it.
You're joy. We're all the different kinds of laughing.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“The same wind that uproots trees
makes the grass shine.

The lordly wind loves the weakness
and the lowness of grasses.
Never brag of being strong.

The axe doesn't worry how thick the branches are.
It cuts them to pieces. But not the leaves.
It leaves the leaves alone.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”
― Rumi

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
― Rumi, Masnavi i Man'avi, the spiritual couplets of Maula

“I want to see you.

Know your voice.

Recognize you when you
first come 'round the corner.

Sense your scent when I come
into a room you've just left.

Know the lift of your heel,
the glide of your foot.

Become familiar with the way
you purse your lips
then let them part,
just the slightest bit,
when I lean in to your space
and kiss you.

I want to know the joy
of how you whisper
"more”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

“silence is the language of god,
all else is poor translation.”
― Rumi

“People want you to be happy.
Don't keep serving them your pain!

If you could untie your wings
and free your soul of jealousy,

you and everyone around you
would fly up like doves.”
― Rumi

“Two there are who are never satisfied -- the lover of the world and the lover of knowledge.”
― Rumi Jalalud-Din, مثنوی معنوی

“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”
― Rumi

“Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.”
― Rumi

“But listen to me. For one moment
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.”
― Rumi

“Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.”
― Rumi

“Take someone who doesn't keep score,
who's not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing,
who has not the slightest interest even
in his own personality: he's free.”
― Rumi Jalalu'l-Din

“I know you're tired but come, this is the way.”
― Jalalu'l-din Rumi

“A mountain keeps an echo deep inside. That's how I hold your voice.”
― Rumi