Gem du Jour

The reason these people study in the universities is, they think, “We’ll become teachers, we’ll get employment in schools.” They say, “One should do good deeds and act properly!” They talk of these things in assemblies in order to get jobs.

Why do you study knowledge for the sake of worldly mouthfuls? This rope is for coming out of the well, not so you can go from this well into that well.

You must exert yourself in knowing this: “Who am I? What substance am I? Why have I come? Where am I going? From whence is my root? At this time what am I doing? Toward what have I turned my face?”

~ Shams-i Tabrizi, 13th Century Sufi mystic