Yaʿqūb ibn Bukhtān said, “I heard Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith say: ‘I know of nothing superior to pursuing hadith for the one who fears Allah and whose intention therein is pure. As for me, I ask Allah’s forgiveness for having pursued it and for every step I ever took in that path.’

It was said that Bishr spoke ungrammatically and was not versed in classical Arabic.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal remarked, ‘Had Bishr married, his affair would have reached perfection.’ (1)

Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said, ‘Baghdad has never produced anyone sounder in judgment than Bishr, nor anyone who guarded his tongue better. In every hair of his there was wisdom. People followed in his footsteps for fifty years, yet no instance is known in which he backbit a fellow Muslim. I have never seen anyone better than him!’ (2)

Bishr also said, ‘A man who tosses about under the pangs of hunger is like one whose life-blood is spilling on the battlefield in the path of Allah.’

He said, ‘A generous rogue is more beloved to Allah than a miserly Sufi.’ (3)

He said, ‘Yesterday has died, today is in its death-throes, and tomorrow has not yet been born.’

‘He will never prosper who has grown accustomed to women’s thighs.’

‘When speech pleases you, remain silent; and when silence pleases you, then speak.’