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
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When you call me close to tell me your body is not beautiful I want to summon the eyes and hidden mouths of stone and light and water to testify against you.
He painted me when I was young because he was in love with me, but now that he has loved me he doesn't paint me anymore.