“Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous.”

O my people, I disavow all that you associate [with God]. I orient my face with an exclusive orientation towards Him, who created the heavens and the earth and I am not one of the associators.

By reason of his elegance, he resembles an image painted in a palace, though he is as majestic as the palace itself.

Fear that man who fears not God.

Abu Sa’id al-Kharraz said I have never known Allah May He be exalted except through the coincidence in Him of the opposites. ‘He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden.’

Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all.

Some men, like spaniels, will only fawn the more when repulsed, but will pay little heed to a friendly caress.

The diurnal sun sets at night, but the sun of the heart never disappears.

When God wanted to create the horse, he said to the South Wind, “I want to make a creature of you. Condense.” And the Wind condensed.

The other world is as to this like the east to the west. We cannot approach the one without turning away from the other.

The absolutely Non-Manifested cannot be designated by any expression which could limit It, Separate It, or include It. In spite of this, every allusion alludes only to Him, every designation designates Him, and He is at the same time the Non-Manifested and the Manifested.

It is with a word as with an arrow–once let it loose and it does not return.

And rest, that strengthens unto virtuous deeds, Is one with Prayer.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.

And the most virtuous of them are those who do not know their own virtue.

The virtuous and the vicious. Therefore when I meet different people I say to myself, “God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner

In our view, successful reform is not an event. It is a sustainable process that will build on its own successes – a virtuous cycle of change.

…mastery of the emotions is fundamental to a virtuous life.

The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.