“Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?”

— Omar Khayyam, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, trans. Edward FitzGerald (1859, LX / 1889, LXXXVII)

About Omar Khayyam

1048 – 1131

Persian polymath and poet, whose quatrains were popularised in English by Edward FitzGerald.

“The Bird of Time has but a little way to fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”

“Whoever thinks algebra is a trick in obtaining unknowns has thought it in vain.”

“Ah, take the Cash in hand and wave the Rest; Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!”

“Let whatever appears to be the best be to you an inviolable law.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

“All that glisters is not gold.”

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

“And one man in his time plays many parts.”

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”