Khalil Gibran Quotes (311 Quotes)

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care, nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me?

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

You who travel with the wind, what weather vane shall direct your course?

And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.

Your children are not your children.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

Joy and sorrow are inseparable, together they came and where one sits alone with you at the board remember that the other is asleep upon your bed

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.

Go to the weak man, and take him away!

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

For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness. Freedom of loneliness and safety from being understood. For those who understand us enslave something in us.

Yet quietly my captain awaits my silence.

Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

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.

Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?

Aim not your arrows at him, lest
He takes fright and vanish 'ere he
Pours the secrets blood as a
Sacrifice at the altar of his
Own faith, given him by Deity
When he fashioned him of love and beauty.

Who would give me one moment of love for a handful of gems?

Love is trembling happiness.

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

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

After a few moments of complete silence, I heard the following words uttered with sighs from weather-bitten lips, "Shed not tears, my beloved; love that opens our eyes and enslaves our hearts can give us the blessing of patience.

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

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

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

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

You would know the secret of death.

Another child entered life and that kingdom at the same time.

My heart refuses to deny you its secret.

Could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy.

And the god laughed and cried.

All these things have you said of beauty. Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied, And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted. It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear, But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears. It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw, But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight. People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and your are the mirror.

The giving and receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy

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