Quotes from Hazrat Inayat Khan

The sage said, 'The best thing is not to hate anyone, only to love.' That is the only way out of it. As soon as you have forgiven those whom you hate, you have gotten rid of them. Then you have no reason to hate them you just forget.

We grown-up people think that we appreciate music, but if we realized the sense that an infant has brought with it of appreciating sound and rhythm, we would never boast of knowing music. The infant is music itself. In the cradle it in moving its little arms and legs in a certain rhythm. And when our music falls on the ears of an infant it is of the lowest character compared with the music it is accustomed to.

The gardener uses both roses in the flowerbed and thorns in making fences.

To a soul which is wide awake, the Judgment Day does not come after death. For that soul every day is a Judgment Day. The Judgment Day is every day, and one realizes this as one's sight becomes more keen. Every hour, every moment in life has its judgment.

He who knows the secret of sound, knows the mystery of the whole universe

There is no end to one's faults. To think of them makes one humble.

Some day music will be the means of expressing universal religion. Time is wanted for this, but there will come a day when music and its philosophy will become the religion of humanity.

The true use of music is to become musical in one's thoughts, words and actions. One should be able to give the harmony for which the soul yearns and longs every moment. All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of harmony, and harmony is best given by producing it in one's own life.

Our thoughts have prepared for us the happiness or unhappiness we experience.

What one really wants is attracted by one, and one is attracted by what one wants.

The reason why man seeks for happiness is not because happiness is his sustenance, but because happiness is his own being; therefore in seeking for happiness, man is seeking for himself.

One moment standing in the midst of nature with open heart is a whole lifetime, if one is in tune with nature.

To create happiness for oneself and others is the whole philosophy of religion.

Love is like the fire; its glow is devotion, its flame is wisdom, its smoke is attachment, and its ashes detachment. Flame rises from glow, so it is with wisdom, which rises from devotion. When love's fire produces its flame it illuminates the devotee's path in life like a torch, and all darkness vanishes.

Therefore the Sufi attends to his own journey, and does not judge others.

To the question, 'What is God?' and 'What is man?' the answer is that the soul, conscious of its limited existence, is 'man', and the soul reflected by the vision of the unlimited, is 'God'. In plain words man's self-consciousness is man, and man's consciousness of his highest ideal is God.

Nothing is as old as the truth, and nothing is as new as the truth.

It is living in sensation that makes man material, and after some time he becomes ignorant of the spirit.

What is inspired comes already arranged beforehand and there is very little to be done by the brain and by the mind.

Therefore it is the law of the mystics to see all things, to experience all things, either of heaven or earth, and yet to say little; for the souls incapable of understanding the possibility of their reach will ridicule them.

all things that seem good and evil are the opposite ends of one line, and it is difficult to say where evil ends and good begins, for these are comparative terms. A lesser good would seem evil when compared with a greater good, and the lesser evil in comparison with the greater evil would appear good. If there were no evil, good would not have been valued. Without injustice, justice would not have been appreciated. Therefore the whole of life's joy is expressed in duality.

The true way of progressing through music is to evolve freely, to go forward, not caring what others think, and in this way, together with one's development in music, to harmonize the life of one's soul, one's surroundings and one's affairs.

Out of the shell of the broken heart emerges the newborn soul.

The teaching of Jesus Christ has as its central theme unfoldment towards a realization of immortality.