Thursday, August 16, 2018

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

The Forty Rules of Love is a book written by the Turkish female author Elif Shafak. Her book is inspired by Rumi's message of love and his companionship with his spiritual master Shams of Tabriz. It's a book that encourages you to transform your life and fill it with love.


“Things that can seem malicious or unfortunate are often a blessing in disguise, whereas things that might seem pleasant can be harmful in the long run.”

“Why do we have to fight everything? We’re always talking about fighting inflation, fighting AIDS, fighting cancer, fighting corruption, fighting terrorism, even fighting extra pounds. Don’t we have any other way of dealing with things?”

“After I lost the woman I loved, I metamorphosed drastically.”

“You think you cannot live anymore. You think that the light of your soul has been put out and that you will stay in the dark forever. But when you are engulfed by such solid darkness, when you have both eyes closed to the world, a third eye opens in your heart. And only then do you come to realize that eyesight conflicts with inner knowledge. No eye sees so clear and sharp as the eye of love. After grief comes another season, another valley, another you. And the lover who is nowhere to be found, you start to see everywhere.”

“For the silk to prosper, the silkworm had to die.”

“Doubts are good. It means you are alive and searching.”

“We don’t need to hunt for love outside ourselves. All we need to do is to eliminate the barriers inside that keep us away from love.”

“I slept peacefully that night, feeling exultant and determined. Little did I know that I was making the most common and the most painful mistake women have made all throughout the ages: to naively think that with their love they can change the man they love.”

“For new experiences to come to light, old ones need to wither away.”

“You can be Rumi. If you let love take hold of you and change you, at first through its presence, then through its absence.”

“Don’t judge the way other people connect to God. To each his own way and his own prayer. God does not take us at our word. He looks deep into our hearts. It is not the ceremonies or rituals that make a difference, but whether our hearts are sufficiently pure or not.”

“One who thinks he has all the answers is the most ignorant.”

“There is no such thing as early or late in life. Everything happens at the right time.”

“She had discovered that once she accepted that she didn’t have to stress herself about things she had no control over, another self emerged from inside—one who was wiser, calmer, and far more sensible.”

“Where there is love, there is bound to be heartache.”

“Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough.”

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