Rumi speaks of people who rely upon the written word as sometimes being no more than donkeys laden with books. Why do people always wonder whether books are any good, without wondering whether they are themselves in a state to profit from them?
Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way (via inthenoosphere)
Each individual composes the music of his own life. If he injures another, he brings disharmony. When his sphere is disturbed, he is disturbed himself, and there is a discord in the melody of his life. If he can quicken the feeling of another to joy or to gratitude, by that much he adds to his own life; he becomes himself by that much more alive. Whether conscious of it or not, his thought is affected for the better by the joy or gratitude of another, and his power and vitality increase thereby, and the music of his life grows more in harmony.
Nurse The Soul 