50 'Milk and Honey' Quotes: Food for Thought to Empower You

An immense power hides deep inside each of us, but we don't always know how to awaken it, and this makes some people let others think and decide for them. Self-empowerment is a big deal; these 50 "Milk and Honey" quotes by Rupi Kaur will give you cause for reflection.

Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet who became a New York Times bestselling author after she published her book, "Milk and Honey," in 2014.

The book is a collection of non-fictional and fictional poetry and proses stylized in all lowercase, an ode to her mother tongue, Punjabi, which only has lowercase letters. It focuses on abuse, love, femininity, loss, and more based on her experiences. It consists of four chapters with different purposes that speak to its readers.

She is also famous for her short-lined prose and poetry, earning her the title of a modern-day poet. The minimalistic poet understood that her generation did not have time to read long paragraphs. So she imbibed the style she had seen and admired in the holy texts of the Sikhs.

Read 50 of her "Milk and Honey" quotes to find out why this book was a bestseller.

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "there is a difference between someone telling you they love you and them actually loving you" | Image: AmoDays

"Milk and Honey" Quotes to Help Find Your Strength

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"i am water / soft enough / to offer life / tough enough / to drown it away" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"do not look for healing / at the feet of those / who broke you" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"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, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise" | Image: AmoDays

"the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it - there is nothing purer than that" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"I have what I have and I am happy I've lost what I've lost and I am still happy - outlook" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"what i miss most is how you loved me. but what i didn't know was how you loved me had so much to do with the person i was. it was a reflection of everything i gave you. coming back to me. how did i not see that. how. did i sit here soaking in the idea that no one else would love me that way. when it was i that taught you. when it was i that showed you how to fill. the way i needed to be filled. how cruel i was to myself. giving you credit for my warmth simply because you had felt it. thinking it was you who gave me strength. wit. beauty. simply because you recognized it. as if i was already not these things before i met you. as if i did not remain all these things after you left." ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"you look at me and cry / everything hurts / i hold you and whisper / but everything can heal" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"it takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it - there is nothing purer than that" | Image: AmoDays

"never feel guilty for starting again" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"to heal / you have to / get to the root / of the wound / and kiss it all the way up" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"it takes monsters to steal souls/and fighters to reclaim them" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"what is stronger than the human heart which shatters over and over and still lives" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"you / are your own / soul mate" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "never feel guilty for starting again" | Image: AmoDays

"to be soft / is to be / powerful" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

"losing you / was the becoming / of myself" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"Milk and Honey" Quotes on Self-Love

"how you love yourself is / how you teach others / to love you" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"Loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself." ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "The Healing" quote: "losing you was the becoming of myself" | Image: AmoDays

"The kindest words my father said to me: Women like you drown oceans." ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"I am a museum full of art but you had your eyes shut" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"Fall in love with your solitude" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"you do not just wake up and become the butterfly—growth is a process" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "i am a museum full of art but you had your eyes shut" | Image: AmoDays

"you must enter a relationship with yourself before anyone else" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"i didn't leave because i stopped loving you i left because the longer i stayed the less i loved myself" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"Milk and Honey" Quotes to Give You More Food for Thought

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"people go but how they left always stays" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"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 - how he touches me" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "you must enter a relationship with yourself before anyone else" | Image: AmoDays

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"most importantly love / like it's the only thing you know how / at the end of the day all this / means nothing / this page / where you're sitting / your degree / your job / the money / nothing even matters / except love and human connection / who you loved / and how deeply you loved them / how you touched the people around you / and how much you gave them" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"The thing about writing is I can't tell if it's healing or destroying." ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"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, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "the thing about writing is I can't tell if it's healing or destroying" | Image: AmoDays

"I know i should crumble for better reasons but have you seen that boy he brings the sun to its knees every night" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"No, it won't be love at first sight when we meet it'll be love at first remembrance cause 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, "Milk and Honey"

"the right one does not / stand in your way / they make space for you / to step forward" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"you / are every hope / i've ever had / in human form" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Loving"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "i know I should crumble for better reasons but have you seen that boy he brings the sun to its knees every night" | Image: AmoDays

"love is not cruel we are cruel love is not a game we have made a game out of love" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"nothing is safer / than the sound of you / reading aloud to me—the perfect date" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"there is a difference between someone telling you they love you and them actually loving you" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"my heart woke me crying last night / how can I help I begged / my heart said / write the book" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

"you might not have been my first love but you were the love that made all other loves seem irrelevant" ― Rupi Kaur, "Milk and Honey"

Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" quote: "love is not cruel we are cruel love is not a game we have made a game out of love" | Image: AmoDays

"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, "Milk and Honey"

"bloom beautifully / dangerously / loudly / bloom softly" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

"accept yourself / as you were designed" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

"I need to be successful to gain / enough milk and honey / to help those around / me succeed" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

"your art / is about / if your heart likes your work / if your soul likes your work" ― Rupi Kaur, "The Healing"

Rupi Kaur's "The Loving" quote: "love will come and when love comes love will hold you" | Image: AmoDays

Since "Milk and Honey," the self-published author has produced three more books translated into over 40 languages, selling over 11 million copies.

In 2021, she debuted her self-produced "Rupi Kaur Live" on Amazon Prime Video. She also had sold-out world tours on various stages.

If you liked these "Milk and Honey" quotes and need more encouragement, these empowerment quotes from legendary women will come to your aid.