300 rupi kaur Quotes

Rupi Kaur changed the way the world reads poetry. With three bestselling collections — milk and honey, the sun and her flowers, and home body — she turned short lowercase lines into a global language of love, heartbreak, healing, and self-worth. Her rupi kaur quotes are shared millions of times because they say the thing you could not say yourself.

This collection gathers 300 rupi kaur quotes, organized into 14 themed sections so you can find the exact line for the exact feeling. Every quote below is a real line from her books, kept in her signature lowercase style. A handful of widely-shared lines that could not be pinned to a specific book are marked “Attributed to rupi kaur” for honesty.

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Editor’s Picks: Best rupi kaur Quotes

rupi kaur Quotes on Love & Romance

rupi kaur writes about love & romance with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “i do not want to have you
   to fill the empty parts of me
   i want to be full on my own
   i want to be so complete
   i could light a whole city
   and then
   i want to have you
   cause the two of us combined
   could set it on fire” — rupi kaur
2. “he placed his hands
   on my mind
   before reaching
   for my waist
   my hips
   or my lips
   he didn't call me
   beautiful first
   he called me
   exquisite” — rupi kaur
3. “i learned love is about giving. everything. and letting it hurt. i learned vulnerability is always the right choice because it is easy to be cold in a world that makes it so very difficult to remain soft.” — rupi kaur
4. “love is not cruel
   we are cruel
   love is not a game
   we have made a game
   out of love” — rupi kaur
5. “you must enter a relationship with yourself before anyone else” — rupi kaur
6. “kiss me like i am the center point of gravity and you are falling into me like my soul is the focal point of yours.” — rupi kaur
7. “he says
   i am sorry i am not an easy person to want
   i look at him surprised
   who said i wanted easy
   i don't crave easy
   i crave goddamn difficult” — rupi kaur
8. “you are a mirror
   if you continue to starve yourself of love
   you'll only meet people who'll starve you too
   if you soak yourself in love
   the universe will hand you those
   who'll love you too
   – a simple math” — rupi kaur
9. “even if this is a mistake. it could only be right to be this wrong with you.” — rupi kaur
10. “i need someone
    who knows struggle
    as well as i do
    someone
    willing to hold my feet in their lap
    on days it is too difficult to stand
    the type of lover i need” — rupi kaur
11. “what am i to you he asks
    i put my hands in his lap
    and whisper you
    are every hope
    i've ever had
    in human form” — rupi kaur
12. “you are the faint line between faith and blindly waiting
    – letter to my future lover” — rupi kaur
13. “soft. i learned all things come in twos. life and death. pain and joy. salt and sugar. me and you. it is the balance of the universe.” — rupi kaur
14. “every revolution starts and ends with his lips” — rupi kaur
15. “your mother
    is in the habit of
    offering more love
    than you can carry” — rupi kaur
16. “the right one does not stand in your way
    they make space for you to step forward” — Attributed to rupi kaur
17. “i am hopelessly a lover and a dreamer and that will be the death of me” — rupi kaur
18. “the kindest words
    my father said to me
    women like you
    drown oceans” — rupi kaur
19. “there is a difference between
    someone telling you
    they love you and
    them actually
    loving you” — rupi kaur
20. “sometimes
    i stop myself from
    saying the words out loud
    as if leaving my mouth too often
    might wear them down
    – i love you” — rupi kaur
21. “the possibility of falling in love. with people and places” — rupi kaur
22. “when love comes love will hold you love will call your name and you will melt sometimes though love will hurt you but love will never mean to love will play no games cause love knows life has been hard enough already” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Heartbreak & Goodbyes

rupi kaur writes about heartbreak & goodbyes with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “people go
   but how they left
   always stays” — rupi kaur
2. “i am a museum full of art
   but you had your eyes shut” — rupi kaur
3. “i had to leave
   i was tired of
   allowing you to
   make me feel
   anything less
   than whole” — rupi kaur
4. “when you are broken
   and he has left you
   do not question
   whether you were
   enough
   the problem was
   you were so enough
   he was not able to carry it” — rupi kaur
5. “it isn't what we left behind
   that breaks me
   it's whatever we could've built
   had we stayed” — rupi kaur
6. “you left and i wanted you still yet i deserved someone who was willing to stay” — rupi kaur
7. “they leave
   and act like it never happened
   they come back
   and act like they never left
   – ghost” — rupi kaur
8. “do not bother holding onto
   that thing that does not want you
   – you cannot make it stay” — rupi kaur
9. “you are waiting for someone
   who is not coming back
   meaning
   you are living your life
   hoping that someone will realize
   they can't live theirs without you
   realizations don't work like that” — rupi kaur
10. “i am losing parts of you like i lose eyelashes
    unknowingly and everywhere” — rupi kaur
11. “where do we go from here my love
    when it's over and i'm standing between us
    whose side do i run to
    when every nerve in my body is pulsing for you
    when my mouth waters at the thought
    when you are pulling me in just by standing there
    how do i turn around and choose myself” — rupi kaur
12. “you were not wrong for leaving
    you were wrong for coming back
    and thinking
    you could have me
    when it was convenient
    and leave when it was not” — rupi kaur
13. “it must hurt to know i am your most beautiful regret” — rupi kaur
14. “my tongue is sour
    from the hunger
    of missing you” — rupi kaur
15. “even though we were both under the same roof of that coffee shop. i was still solar systems away from you.” — rupi kaur
16. “the hummingbirds tell me
    you've changed your hair
    i tell them i don't care
    while listening to them
    describe every detail
    – hunger” — rupi kaur
17. “i long
    for you
    but you long
    for someone else
    i deny the one
    who wants me
    cause i want someone else” — rupi kaur
18. “i don't know what living a balanced life feels like
    when i am sad
    i don't cry i pour
    when i am happy
    i don't smile i glow
    when i am angry
    i don't yell i burn
    the good thing about feeling in extremes is
    when i love i give them wings
    but perhaps that isn't
    such a good thing cause
    they always tend to leave
    and you should see me
    when my heart is broken
    i don't grieve
    i shatter” — rupi kaur
19. “you were temptingly beautiful
    but stung when i got close” — rupi kaur
20. “we began with honesty
    let us end in it too” — Attributed to rupi kaur
21. “he only whispers i love you as he slips his hands down the waistband of your pants. this is where you must understand the difference between want and need – you may want that boy but you certainly don't need him” — rupi kaur
22. “the night after you left
    i woke up so broken
    the only place to put the pieces
    were the bags under my eyes” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Healing & Recovery

rupi kaur writes about healing & recovery with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “accept that you deserve more
   than painful love
   life is moving
   the healthiest thing
   for your heart is
   to move with it” — rupi kaur
2. “stay strong through your pain grow flowers from it you have helped me grow flowers out of mine so bloom beautifully dangerously loudly bloom softly however you need just bloom” — rupi kaur
3. “you look at me and cry
   everything hurts
   i hold you and whisper
   but everything can heal” — rupi kaur
4. “never feel guilty for starting again” — rupi kaur
5. “fall
   in love
   with your solitude” — rupi kaur
6. “think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year they will teach you that people too must wilt fall root rise in order to bloom” — rupi kaur
7. “i will never have
   this version of me again
   let me slow down
   and be with her
   – always evolving” — rupi kaur
8. “you lose everything
   when you don't love yourself
   – and gain everything when you do” — rupi kaur
9. “you are lonely
   but you are not alone
   – there is a difference” — rupi kaur
10. “who tricked you into believing another person was meant to complete you when the most they can do is complement” — rupi kaur
11. “it is a part of the human experience to feel pain do not be afraid open yourself to it” — rupi kaur
12. “for you to see beauty here does not mean there is beauty in me it means there is beauty rooted so deep within you you can't help but see it everywhere” — rupi kaur
13. “wish pure love and soft peace
    upon the ones
    who've been unkind to you
    and keep moving forward
    – this will free you both” — rupi kaur
14. “it's easy to love
    the nice things about ourselves
    but true self-love is
    embracing the difficult parts
    that live in all of us” — rupi kaur
15. “love will come and when love comes love will hold you love will call your name and you will melt sometimes though love will hurt you but love will never mean to love will play no games cause love knows life has been hard enough already” — rupi kaur
16. “we've worked so hard
    to be here
    we can afford to
    slow down and enjoy the view” — rupi kaur
17. “make it a point
    to love yourself
    as fiercely as you do other people
    – commitment” — rupi kaur
18. “you might have done
    the external work
    but your mind is starving
    for internal attention” — rupi kaur
19. “the way you speak of yourself
    the way you degrade yourself
    into smallness
    is abuse
    – self-harm” — rupi kaur
20. “do not look for healing in the feet of those who broke you” — rupi kaur
21. “there is nothing wrong with you this is growth this is transformation protecting yourself getting lost in the noise figuring it out, feeling used, uncared for, losing hope, burning out, this is fear, this is processing, this is surviving this is being alive – journey” — rupi kaur
22. “after feeling disconnected for so long my mind and body are finally coming back to each other” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Self-Love & Worth

rupi kaur writes about self-love & worth with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “if you are not enough for yourself you will never be enough for someone else” — rupi kaur
2. “it takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations” — rupi kaur
3. “i am learning how to love him by loving myself” — rupi kaur
4. “i am not who i have survived. i am who i have become” — rupi kaur
5. “self-love is the very first romance” — rupi kaur
6. “the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it” — rupi kaur
7. “to heal you have to get to the root of the wound and kiss it all the way up” — rupi kaur
8. “you do not just wake up and become the butterfly – growth is a process” — rupi kaur
9. “how can i be so cruel to myself when i'm doing the best i can – be gentle” — rupi kaur
10. “you are your own soulmate” — rupi kaur
11. “you must see no worth in yourself if you find validation from him” — rupi kaur
12. “for if we can't learn to be kind to each other how will we ever learn to be kind to the most desperate parts of ourselves” — rupi kaur
13. “why escape yourself when you are so beautiful get closer to your shine” — rupi kaur
14. “if you're waiting for them to make you feel like you're enough you'll be waiting a long time” — rupi kaur
15. “i am not lonely i am alone & i love that” — rupi kaur
16. “live loud and proud like you deserve and reject their bullshit definition of what a woman should look like” — rupi kaur
17. “silly girl little angel little devil so oblivious to being the miracle worker you are the mother the magician the master of your life” — rupi kaur
18. “i do not need the kind of love that is draining i want someone who energizes me” — rupi kaur
19. “i am not broken because of the depression i am not a lesser version of myself because of the anxiety i am a whole complete and complicated person – full” — rupi kaur
20. “life is moving
    the healthiest thing for your heart
    is to move with it” — rupi kaur
21. “bloom beautifully, dangerously, loudly
    bloom softly
    however you need
    just bloom” — rupi kaur
22. “look down at your body
    whisper
    there is no home like you” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Feminism & Womanhood

rupi kaur writes about feminism & womanhood with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “what's the greatest lesson a woman should learn? that since day one she's already had everything she needs within herself it's the world that convinced her she did not” — rupi kaur
2. “i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful before i've called them intelligent or brave” — rupi kaur
3. “our backs tell stories no books have the spine to carry” — rupi kaur
4. “to be soft is to be powerful” — rupi kaur
5. “other women's bodies are not our battlegrounds” — rupi kaur
6. “you tell me to quiet down cause my opinions make me less beautiful but i was not made with a fire in my belly so i could be put out i was not made with a lightness on my tongue so i could be easy to swallow i was made heavy half blade and half silk difficult to forget and not easy for the mind to follow” — rupi kaur
7. “my heart aches for sisters more than anything it aches for women helping women like flowers ache for spring” — rupi kaur
8. “i will not have you build me into your life when what i want is to build a life with you – the difference” — rupi kaur
9. “i'm not going to pretend to be less intelligent than i am so a man can feel more comfortable around me the one i deserve will see my greatness and want to lift it higher” — rupi kaur
10. “we need more love not from men but from ourselves and each other” — rupi kaur
11. “their concept of beauty is manufactured i am not – human” — rupi kaur
12. “i can't wrap my head around the fact that i have to convince half the world's population that my body is not their bed” — rupi kaur
13. “representation is vital otherwise the butterfly surrounded by a group of moths unable to see itself will keep trying to become the moth – representation” — rupi kaur
14. “it is a blessing to be the color of earth do you know how often flowers confuse me for home” — rupi kaur
15. “like a flower
    eventually grows out of
    losing itself to the winter
    i've grown out of you” — rupi kaur
16. “i am the product of all the ancestors getting together and deciding these stories need to be told” — rupi kaur
17. “i'm too in love with my life to be spilling all over the floor for the next man who gives me butterflies when i could look in the mirror and take my own breath away” — rupi kaur
18. “i am not a victim of my life what i went through pulled a warrior out of me and it is my greatest honor to be her” — rupi kaur
19. “the mountains i built from all the shit people tried to stone me to death with – warrior” — rupi kaur
20. “every time you tell your daughter you yell at her out of love you teach her to confuse anger with kindness which seems like a good idea till she grows up to trust guys that hurt her cause they look so much like you – to dads with daughters” — rupi kaur
21. “my twenties are the warm-up for what i'm really about to do wait till you see me in my thirties now that will be a proper introduction to the nasty wild woman in me” — rupi kaur
22. “there is no bigger illusion in the world
    than the idea that a woman will
    bring dishonor into a home
    if she tries to keep her heart
    and her body safe” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Body & Acceptance

rupi kaur writes about body & acceptance with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “i like the way the stretch marks on my thighs look human and that we're so soft yet rough and jungle wild when we need to be i love that about us how capable we are of feeling how unafraid we are of breaking and tend to our wounds with grace just being a woman calling myself a woman makes me utterly whole and complete” — rupi kaur
2. “accept yourself as you were designed” — rupi kaur
3. “removing all the hair off your body is okay if that's what you want to do just as much as keeping all the hair on your body is okay if that's what you want to do – you belong only to yourself” — rupi kaur
4. “the next time he points out the hair on your legs is growing back remind that boy your body is not his home he is a guest warn him to never outstep his welcome again” — rupi kaur
5. “your body is a temple you are the deity it was built for” — rupi kaur
6. “your body is a museum of natural disasters can you grasp how stunning that is” — rupi kaur
7. “i am water soft enough to offer life tough enough to drown it away” — rupi kaur
8. “trust your body it reacts to right and wrong better than your mind does” — rupi kaur
9. “my body remembers my body is the map of my life my body wears what it's been through” — rupi kaur
10. “i dive into the well of my body and end up in another world everything i need already exists in me there's no need to look anywhere else” — rupi kaur
11. “you are a soul a world a portal a spirit you are never alone you are organs and blood and flesh and muscle a colony of miracles weaving into each other” — rupi kaur
12. “i have to honor my mind and body if i want to sustain this journey – life” — rupi kaur
13. “why are you so unkind to me my body cries cause you don't look like them i tell her” — rupi kaur
14. “it is ungraceful of me to mention my period in public” — rupi kaur
15. “the need to survive lit a fire in me” — rupi kaur
16. “i'm a new person every month always becoming and unbecoming only to become again” — rupi kaur
17. “you do not belong to the future or the past you belong right here” — rupi kaur
18. “i am not my worst days i am not what happened to me – reminder” — rupi kaur
19. “nothing lasts forever let that be the reason you stay even this sick twisted misery will not last – hope” — rupi kaur
20. “capitalism got inside my head and made me think i am of worth as long as i am working” — rupi kaur
21. “i'm done trying to prove myself to myself” — rupi kaur
22. “i get so lost in where i want to go i forget that the place i'm in is already quite magical” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Immigration & Belonging

rupi kaur writes about immigration & belonging with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “they have no idea what it is like to lose home at the risk of never finding home again to have your entire life split between two lands and become the bridge between two countries – immigrant” — rupi kaur
2. “perhaps we are all immigrants trading one home for another first we leave the womb for air then the suburbs for the filthy city in search for a better life some of us just happen to leave entire countries” — rupi kaur
3. “my voice is the offspring of two countries colliding what is there to be ashamed of if english and my mother tongue made love my voice is her father's words and mother's accent what does it matter if my mouth carries two worlds – accent” — rupi kaur
4. “borders are man-made they divide us physically don't let them make us turn on each other – we are not enemies” — rupi kaur
5. “you split the world into pieces and called them countries declared ownership on what never belonged to you and left the rest with nothing” — rupi kaur
6. “when she opens her mouth and broken english spills out don't be ashamed of the fact that she split through countries to be here so you wouldn't have to cross a shoreline” — rupi kaur
7. “her accent is thick like honey hold it with your life it's the only thing she has left from home” — rupi kaur
8. “i think about the way my father pulled the family out of poverty without knowing what a vowel was and my mother raised four children without being able to construct a perfect sentence in english” — rupi kaur
9. “wants to give her a home in a country that looks at her with the word visitor wrapped around its tongue” — rupi kaur
10. “a discombobulated couple who landed in the new world with hopes that left the bitter taste of rejection in their mouths” — rupi kaur
11. “no family no friends just man and wife two university degrees that meant nothing one mother tongue that was broken now one swollen belly with a baby inside” — rupi kaur
12. “for years they were separated by oceans left with nothing but little photographs of each other smaller than passport size photos hers was tucked into a golden locket” — rupi kaur
13. “she wondered if this was the place had she boarded the right flight should've asked the air hostess twice” — rupi kaur
14. “your mother is in the habit of offering more love than you can carry your father is absent you are a war the border between two countries the collateral damage the paradox that joins the two but also splits them apart” — rupi kaur
15. “it was when i stopped searching for home within others and lifted the foundations of home within myself i found there were no roots more intimate than those between a mind and body that have decided to be whole” — rupi kaur
16. “i am not a hotel room i am home” — rupi kaur
17. “you are one person, but when you move, an entire community walks through you – you go nowhere alone” — rupi kaur
18. “remember the body of your community breathe in the people who sewed you whole it is you who became yourself but those before you are a part of your fabric – honor the roots” — rupi kaur
19. “so the women after me can see farther – legacy” — rupi kaur
20. “we already have the things that can complete us they just aren't things they are people and laughter and connection” — rupi kaur
21. “when a woman wears it like a garden on her skin that is the definition of beauty big hooked noses pointing upward to the sky like they're rising to the occasion skin the color of earth my ancestors planted crops on to feed a lineage of women with thighs thick as tree trunks eyes like almonds deeply hooded with conviction the rivers of punjab” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Motherhood & Family

rupi kaur writes about motherhood & family with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “when my mother was pregnant with her second child i was four i pointed at her swollen belly confused at how my mother had gotten so big in such little time my father scooped me in his tree trunk arms and said the closest thing to god on this earth is a woman's body it's where life comes from and to have a grown man tell me something so powerful at such a young age changed me to see the entire universe rested at my mother's feet” — rupi kaur
2. “my mother sacrificed her dreams so i could dream” — rupi kaur
3. “i want to sit with the teenage version of my mother. ask about her dreams. become her pleated braid. the black kohl caressing her eyelids. the flour neatly packed into her fingertips. a page in her schoolbooks. even to be a single thread of her cotton dress would be the greatest gift. – to witness a miracle” — rupi kaur
4. “what if there isn't enough time to give her what she deserves do you think if i begged the sky hard enough my mother's soul would return to me as my daughter so i can give her the comfort she gave me my whole life” — rupi kaur
5. “this is the recipe of life said my mother as she held me in her arms as i wept think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year they will teach you that people too must wilt fall root rise in order to bloom” — rupi kaur
6. “father. you always call to say nothing in particular. you ask what i'm doing or where i am and when the silence stretches like a lifetime between us i scramble to find questions to keep the conversation going. what i long to say most is. i understand this world broke you. it has been so hard on your feet. i don't blame you for not knowing how to remain soft with me. sometimes i stay up thinking of all the places you are hurting which you'll never care to mention. i come from the same aching blood. from the same bone so desperate for attention i collapse in on myself. i am your daughter. i know the small talk is the only way you know how to tell me you love me. cause it is the only way i know how to tell you.” — rupi kaur
7. “when my mother opens her mouth to have a conversation at dinner my father shoves the word hush between her lips and tells her to never speak with her mouth full this is how the women in my family learned to live with their mouths closed” — rupi kaur
8. “emptying out of my mother's belly was my first act of disappearance learning to shrink for a family who likes their daughters invisible was the second the art of being empty is simple” — rupi kaur
9. “i can't tell if my mother is terrified or in love with my father it all looks the same i flinch when you touch me i fear it is him” — rupi kaur
10. “tell your daughter you yell at her out of love you teach her to confuse anger with kindness” — rupi kaur
11. “when my mother says i deserve better i snap to your defense out of habit he still loves me i shout she looks at me with defeated eyes the way a parent looks at a child when they know this is the type of pain even they can't fix and says it means nothing to me if he loves you if he can't do a single wretched thing about it” — rupi kaur
12. “on days i could not move it was women who came to water my feet until i was strong enough to stand it was women who nourished me back to life” — rupi kaur
13. “we were always in survival mode long after we didn't need to be” — rupi kaur
14. “you were a dragon long before he came around and said you could fly you will remain a dragon long after he's left” — rupi kaur
15. “the idea of shrinking is hereditary” — rupi kaur
16. “there is family. blood or chosen. the possibility of falling in love. with people and places” — rupi kaur
17. “we are flowers cheering each other on to grow and celebrating in each other's accomplishments as we would our own” — Attributed to rupi kaur
18. “i've seen you in my mother's eyes
    when she tells me to marry the type of man
    i'd want to raise my son to be like” — rupi kaur
19. “and for the pains it can't
    there will always be my mother's arm” — rupi kaur
20. “when it came to listening
    my mother taught me silence
    if you are drowning their voice with yours
    how will you hear them
    she asked” — rupi kaur
21. “i am your daughter. i know the small talk is the only way you know how to tell me you love me. cause it is the only way i know how to tell you.” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Strength & Survival

rupi kaur writes about strength & survival with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “how is it so easy for you to be kind to people he asked milk and honey dripped from my lips as i answered cause people have not been kind to me” — rupi kaur
2. “fall in love with your solitude” — rupi kaur
3. “i thank the universe for taking everything it has taken and giving to me everything it is giving” — rupi kaur
4. “i have what i have and i am happy i've lost what i've lost and i am still happy” — rupi kaur
5. “and here you are living despite it all” — rupi kaur
6. “you mustn't have to make them want you they must want you themselves” — rupi kaur
7. “i don't grieve, i shatter” — rupi kaur
8. “if the devil hadn't pushed you into a corner and forced you to break its neck how would you have known you were this strong” — rupi kaur
9. “get loud say what you need to say it feels good to reclaim your life” — rupi kaur
10. “when they buried me alive i dug my way out of the ground with palm and fist i howled so loud the earth rose in fear and the dirt began to levitate my whole life has been an uprising one burial after another – i will find my way out of you just fine” — rupi kaur
11. “used to dream of being so strong nothing could shake me. now. i am. so strong. that nothing shakes me. and all i dream is to soften.” — rupi kaur
12. “my mind said i can't take it anymore. i told my mind you better get yourself together. we came here for joy. and we are going to feel all of it.” — rupi kaur
13. “it takes monsters to steal souls and fighters to reclaim them” — rupi kaur
14. “i will have to remember how to keep my sun in my mouth, remembering not to burn before i can run” — rupi kaur
15. “life does not stop for anybody it drags you by the legs whether you want to move forward or not that is the gift life will force you to forget how you long for them your skin will shed till there is not a single part of you left they've touched” — rupi kaur
16. “people say things meant to rip you in half but you hold the power to not turn their words into a knife and cut yourself” — rupi kaur
17. “when it came to being she said be tender and tough at once you need to be vulnerable to live fully but rough enough to survive it all” — rupi kaur
18. “break down every door they built to keep you out and bring all your people with you – storm” — rupi kaur
19. “the sun can't stop the storm from coming” — rupi kaur
20. “why is it
    that when the story ends
    we begin to feel all of it” — rupi kaur
21. “i was not made with a fire in my belly
    so i could be put out” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Growth & New Beginnings

rupi kaur writes about growth & new beginnings with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “i woke up thinking the work was done i would not have to practise today how naive to think healing was that easy when there is no end point no finish line to cross healing is everyday work” — rupi kaur
2. “despite knowing they won't be here for long they still choose to live their brightest lives – sunflowers” — rupi kaur
3. “rise said the moon and the new day came the show must go on said the sun life does not stop for anybody it drags you by the legs whether you want to move forward or not that is the gift life will force you to forget how you long for them your skin will shed till there is not a single part of you left they've touched your eyes finally just your eyes not the eyes which held them you will make it to the end of what is only the beginning go on open the door to the rest of it – time” — rupi kaur
4. “i stopped resisting the unpleasant feelings and accepted that happiness has nothing to do with feeling good all the time – balance” — rupi kaur
5. “not everything you do has to be self-improving you are not a machine you are a person without rest your work can never be full without play your mind can never be nourished – balance” — rupi kaur
6. “you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first” — rupi kaur
7. “you are in the habit of co-depending on people to make up for what you think you lack who tricked you into believing another person was meant to complete you when the most they can do is complement” — rupi kaur
8. “happiness grew old waiting for me and i grew old searching for happiness in places it did not live” — rupi kaur
9. “you have to stop planting flowers in peoples yards who won't water them” — rupi kaur
10. “the thing worth holding on to would not have let go” — rupi kaur
11. “you are snakeskin and i keep shedding you somehow” — rupi kaur
12. “we can work at our own pace and still be successful” — rupi kaur
13. “i notice everything i do not have and decide it is beautiful” — rupi kaur
14. “the middle place is strange
    the part between them and the next
    is an awakening from how you saw to
    how you will see” — rupi kaur
15. “take the compliment
    do not shy away
    from another thing
    that belongs to you” — rupi kaur
16. “i'm either romanticizing the past or i'm busy worrying about the future
    it's no wonder i don't feel alive
    i'm not living in the only moment that's real
    – present” — rupi kaur
17. “i am trusting the uncertainty
    and believing i will
    end up somewhere
    right and good” — rupi kaur
18. “i put off everything that
    won't bring me closer to my dreams
    as if the things i'm putting off
    are not the dream themselves” — rupi kaur
19. “learning to not envy
    someone else's blessing
    is what grace looks like” — rupi kaur
20. “i will no longer
    compare my path to others
    – i refuse to do a disservice to my life” — rupi kaur
21. “what terrifies me most is how we
    foam at the mouth with envy
    when others succeed
    but sigh in relief
    when they are failing
    our struggle to
    celebrate each other is
    what's proven most difficult
    in being human” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Boundaries & Letting Go

rupi kaur writes about boundaries & letting go with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “the way they leave tells you everything” — rupi kaur
2. “you have to stop searching for why at some point you have to leave it alone” — rupi kaur
3. “let it go let it leave let it happen nothing in this world was promised or belonged to you anyway all you own is yourself” — rupi kaur
4. “you cannot leave and have me too i cannot exist in two places at once when you ask if we can still be friends” — rupi kaur
5. “losing you was the beginning of myself” — rupi kaur
6. “i do not want to have you to fill the empty parts of me i want to be full on my own” — rupi kaur
7. “i didn't leave because i stopped loving you i left cause the longer i stayed the less i loved myself” — rupi kaur
8. “don't mistake salt for sugar if he wants to be with you he will it's that simple” — rupi kaur
9. “you have only scratched the surface of what you're capable of there are decades of victories ahead of you” — rupi kaur
10. “do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you” — rupi kaur
11. “on days you can't hear yourself slow down to let your mind and body catch up to each other” — rupi kaur
12. “this is where you must
    understand the difference
    between want and need
    you may want that boy
    but you certainly
    don't need him” — rupi kaur
13. “my mind keeps running off to dark corners and coming back with reasons for why i am not enough” — rupi kaur
14. “why do i hurt the ones
    who want to lift me up and
    worship the ones who crush me” — rupi kaur
15. “remind that boy your body is not his home
    he is a guest
    warn him to never outstep his welcome again” — rupi kaur
16. “you ask
    if we can still be friends
    i explain how a honeybee
    does not dream of kissing
    the mouth of a flower
    and then settle for its leaves
    – i don't need more friends” — rupi kaur
17. “do not bother holding on to that thing that does not want you” — rupi kaur
18. “a lot of times
    we are angry at other people
    for not doing what
    we should have done for ourselves
    – responsibility” — rupi kaur
19. “your partner is supposed to enrich your life
    not drain it
    staying when it hurts is not love” — rupi kaur
20. “i'm careful about
    who i spend my energy on
    – i know my worth” — rupi kaur
21. “day by day i realize
    everything i miss about you
    was never there in the first place
    – the person i fell in love with was a mirage” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Hope & Light

rupi kaur writes about hope & light with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “i am loving myself out of the dark” — rupi kaur
2. “no matter how dark it gets the light is always on its way” — rupi kaur
3. “you are the light” — rupi kaur
4. “loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself” — rupi kaur
5. “you have everything to gain from believing in yourself yet you spend all your time with self-doubt” — rupi kaur
6. “we are all born so beautiful the greatest tragedy is being convinced we are not” — rupi kaur
7. “do not lick your wounds celebrate them they are the reason you are here” — rupi kaur
8. “i know it's hard believe me i know it feels like tomorrow will never come and today will be the most difficult day to get through but i swear you will get through the hurt will pass as it always does if you give it time and let it so let it go slowly like a broken promise let it go” — rupi kaur
9. “be here in what needs to be done today – that's how you honor tomorrow” — rupi kaur
10. “i'm waking up from the longest night of my life it's been years since i've seen the sun – awakening” — rupi kaur
11. “for the love of my life i am trying my best to have hope i'll keep greeting each morning with an i will when it feels like i can't i will i will i will meet a day that will melt me i will move and the sadness will fall off my shoulders to make room for joy i will be full of color i will touch the sky again” — rupi kaur
12. “i often daydream about the woman i'll be when i leave the rush of my insecure twenties and pick up self-assurance on the way i can't wait to make my eighteen-year-old self jealous of the hell i raise roaring into my thirties and forties my soul becoming more potent with age at fifty i'll sit with my wrinkles and silver hair laughing about the adventures we've had together talking about the countless more in the decades ahead what a privilege it is to grow into the finest version of myself – aging” — rupi kaur
13. “like the rainbow after the rain joy will reveal itself after sorrow” — rupi kaur
14. “if the hurt comes so will the happiness” — rupi kaur
15. “we have been dying since we got here and forgot to enjoy the view – live fully” — rupi kaur
16. “stop looking up at everything you don't have and look around at everything you do” — rupi kaur
17. “the universe took its time on you crafted you to offer the world something different from everyone else when you doubt how you were created you doubt an energy greater than us both – irreplaceable” — rupi kaur
18. “the way we rise from every sorrow in life is the most gorgeous thing i've seen” — rupi kaur
19. “there are miracles in me waiting their turn to happen i am never giving up on myself” — rupi kaur
20. “our pain is the doorway to our joy” — rupi kaur
21. “what a relief to discover that the aches i thought were mine alone are also felt by so many others” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Friendship & Community

rupi kaur writes about friendship & community with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “it isn't blood that makes you my sister it's how you understand my heart as though you carry it in your body” — rupi kaur
2. “our souls ache for community our deepest being craves one another we need to be connected to feel alive” — rupi kaur
3. “we all move forward when we recognize how resilient and striking the women around us are” — rupi kaur
4. “our work should equip the next generation of women to outdo us in every field this is the legacy we'll leave behind” — rupi kaur
5. “our struggle to celebrate each other is what's proven most difficult in being human” — rupi kaur
6. “give to those who have nothing to give to you” — rupi kaur
7. “when the world comes crashing at your feet it's okay to let others help pick up the pieces if we're present to take part in your happiness when your circumstances are great we are more than capable of sharing your pain” — rupi kaur
8. “love does not look like a person love is our actions love is giving all we can even if it's just the bigger slice of cake love is understanding we have the power to hurt one another but we are going to do everything in our power to make sure we don't” — rupi kaur
9. “if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise” — rupi kaur
10. “you are a mirror if you continue to starve yourself of love you'll only meet people who'll starve you too if you soak yourself in love the universe will hand you those who'll love you too” — rupi kaur
11. “people go but how they left always stays” — rupi kaur
12. “we must learn to focus on warm energy always soak our limbs in it and become better lovers to the world for if we can't learn to be kind to each other how will we ever learn to be kind to the most desperate parts of ourselves” — rupi kaur
13. “to hate is an easy lazy thing but to love takes strength everyone has but not all are willing to practice” — rupi kaur
14. “of course i want to be successful but i don't crave success for me i need to be successful to gain enough milk and honey to help those around me succeed” — rupi kaur
15. “i am sending my love to your eyes may they always see goodness in people and may you always practice kindness” — rupi kaur
16. “they did not tell me it would hurt like this
    no one warned me
    about the heartbreak we experience with friends” — rupi kaur
17. “i miss the days my friends knew every mundane detail about my life
    and i knew every ordinary detail about theirs” — rupi kaur
18. “making friends out of strangers. making strangers out of friends.” — rupi kaur
19. “some people are so bitter
    to them you must be kindest” — rupi kaur
20. “witnessing a starry sky. the lightness of laughing with old friends.” — rupi kaur
21. “the irony of loneliness
    is we all feel it
    at the same time
    – together” — rupi kaur

rupi kaur Quotes on Words & Writing

rupi kaur writes about words & writing with rare honesty. Here are her most powerful lines on the subject.

1. “the thing about writing is i can't tell if it's healing or destroying” — rupi kaur
2. “my heart woke me crying last night how can i help i begged my heart said write the book” — rupi kaur
3. “your art is not about how many people like your work your art is about if your heart likes your work if your soul likes your work it's about how honest you are with yourself and you must never trade honesty for relatability” — rupi kaur
4. “the universe took its time on you craft you precisely so you could offer the world something distinct from everyone else” — rupi kaur
5. “i write to document we were here” — Attributed to rupi kaur
6. “sometimes i stop myself from saying the words out loud as if leaving my mouth too often might wear them down” — rupi kaur
7. “nothing is safer than the sound of you reading aloud to me the perfect date” — rupi kaur
8. “trying to convince myself i am allowed to take up space is like writing with my left hand when i was born to use my right” — rupi kaur
9. “what’s the greatest lesson a woman should learn – that since day one she’s already had everything she needs within herself” — rupi kaur
10. “i stand on the sacrifices of a million women before me thinking what can i do to make this mountain taller so the women after me can see farther” — rupi kaur
11. “be tender and tough all at once you need to be vulnerable to live fully but rough enough to survive it all” — rupi kaur
12. “i was music but you had your ears cut off” — rupi kaur
13. “you were so afraid of my voice i decided to be afraid of it too” — rupi kaur
14. “i read hundreds of books growing up but none can explain this torment to me i need access to words written by people who look like me writing about the things i am going through” — Attributed to rupi kaur
15. “you were made to be soft in a world that wants to make you hard” — rupi kaur
16. “if you want to be creative you need to learn how to do stuff that has no purpose art isn't made by working all the time first you've got to go out and live the art” — Attributed to rupi kaur
17. “i read that the thing we're most afraid to say is the thing that's most universal” — Attributed to rupi kaur
18. “we hadn't touched yet
    but we managed to travel
    in and out of each other
    with our words” — rupi kaur
19. “a reader who told me the poems had saved their life.” — rupi kaur
20. “i was not made with a lightness on my tongue
    so i could be easy to swallow
    i was made heavy
    half blade and half silk
    difficult to forget and not easy
    for the mind to follow” — rupi kaur
21. “my voice threw itself over the edge of my throat
    landed at the bottom of my belly
    and hid for months” — rupi kaur

How to Use These rupi kaur Quotes

rupi kaur quotes work beautifully as Instagram captions, journal prompts, or messages to a friend who needs them. Because she writes in lowercase, her lines look striking as text posts — screenshot a picture quote from this page or copy any line with the copy button. For tattoos or printed art, double-check the exact line breaks against her books, since her formatting is part of the poem.

More rupi kaur Quotes to Explore

If these rupi kaur quotes moved you, keep reading:

• love quotes that speak straight to the heart
• self-love quotes for building your worth
• breakup quotes for mending a broken heart
• friendship quotes celebrating your people
• deep quotes that make you think
• life quotes full of hard-won wisdom
• strong women quotes for fearless females
• sad quotes for the heavy days
• family quotes honoring your roots
• hope quotes to light the way forward

Read more about the poet herself at rupikaur.com, her official website.

Frequently Asked Questions About rupi kaur Quotes

Who is rupi kaur?

rupi kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet and artist, author of the bestselling collections milk and honey (2014), the sun and her flowers (2017), and home body (2020). She is known for short lowercase poems about love, trauma, femininity, and healing, paired with her own line illustrations.

Why does rupi kaur write in lowercase?

She writes in lowercase as a nod to the Gurmukhi script of Punjabi, her mother tongue, which has no uppercase and lowercase distinction. She has said she enjoys its visual symmetry and simplicity.

What is rupi kaur’s most famous quote?

Among her most-shared lines are “how you love yourself is how you teach others to love you” and “if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise,” both from milk and honey. Our themed sections above gather hundreds more of her best lines.

Can I use rupi kaur quotes on Instagram?

Short quotes shared with clear credit to rupi kaur are the standard way her work travels online — she built her audience on Instagram herself. Always attribute the line to her, and for commercial use, check her official channels for permissions.