Khalil Gibran

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with ...
Read More

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to ...
Read More

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your friend is your needs answered.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite, if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love, love recompenses the adorers.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here, and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind, yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury, but if you injure him you will always remember.

If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Love is trembling happiness.

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

Love... it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

You have your ideology and I have mine.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You pray in your distress and in your need, would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life, not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Your friend is your needs answered.

Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.