Kahlil Gibran Quotes (113 Quotes)

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers

You delight in laying down laws, yet you delight more in breaking them. Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

All you have shall some day be given Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

The fool sees naught but folly and the madman only madness. Yesterday I asked a foolish man to count the fools among us. He laughed and said, 'This is too hard a thing to do, and it will take too long. Were it not better to count only the wise'

Each thing that exists remains forever, and that very existence of existence is proof of its eternity. But without that realization, which is the knowledge of perfect being, man would never know whether there was existence or non-existence. If eternal existence is altered, then it must become more beautiful and if it disappears, it must return with more sublime image and if it sleeps, it must dream of a better awakening, for it is ever greater upon its rebirth.

Art is one step from the visibly known toward the unknown.

Humanity looks upon Jesus the Nazarene as a poor-born Who suffered misery and humiliation with all of the weak. And He is pitied, for Humanity believes He was crucified painfully.... And all that Humanity offers to Him is crying and wailing and lamentation. For centuries Humanity has been worshiping weakness in the person of the Savior. The Nazarene was not weak He was strong and is strong But the people refuse to heed the true meaning of strength.

Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.

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 is the second, then you are an oasis in a desert.

You may chain my hands, you may shackle my feet you may even throw me into a dark prison but you shall not enslave my thinking, because it is free.

God has given you a spirit with wings on which to soar into the spacious firmament of Love and Freedom. Is it not pitiful than that you cut your wings with your own hands and suffer your soul to crawl like an insect upon the earth.

The heart's affections are divided like the branches of the cedar tree if the tree loses one strong branch it will suffer but it does not die it will pour all its vitality into the next branch so that it will grow and fill the empty place.

There is no secret in the mystery of life stronger and more beautiful than that attachment which converts the silence of a virgins spirit into a perpetual awareness that makes a person forget the past, for it kindles fiercely in the heart the sweet and overwhelming hope of the coming future.

Oh Jesus, they have built these churches for the sake of their own glory, and embellished them with silk and melted gold.... They left the bodies of Thy chosen poor wrapped in tattered raiment in the cold night.... They filled the sky with the smoke of burning candles and incense and left the bodies of Thy faithful worshipers empty of bread.... They raised their voices with hymns of praise, but deafened themselves to the cry and moan of the widows and orphans. Come again, Oh Living Jesus, and drive the vendors of Thy faith from Thy sacred temple, for they have turned it into a dark cave where vipers of hypocrisy and falsehood crawl and abound.

Spring is beautiful everywhere, but it is more than beautiful in Lebanon. Spring is the spirit of an unknown God speeding through the world, which, as it reaches Lebanon, pauses, because now it is as at home with the souls of the Prophets and Kings hovering over the land, chanting with the brooks of Judea, the eternal Psalms of Solomon, renewing with the Cedars of Lebanon memories of an ancient glory.

Yea, death and prison we mete out To small offenders of the laws, While honor, wealth, and full respect On greater pirates we bestow. To steal a flower we call mean. To rob a field is chivalry Who kills the body he must die, Who kills the spirit he goes free.

Whoever would be a teacher of men let him begin by teaching himself before teaching others and let him teach by example before teaching by word. For he who teaches himself and rectifies his own ways is more deserving of respect and reverence than he who would teach others and rectify their ways.

Work is love made visible. And if you can't 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 the people who work with joy.

Remember that Divinity is the true self of Man. It cannot be sold for gold neither can it be heaped up as are the riches of the world today. The rich man has cast off his Divinity, and has clung to his gold. And the young today have forsaken their Divinity and pursue self-indulgence and pleasure.

Nature reaches out to us with welcoming arms, and bids us enjoy her beauty but we dread her silence and rush into the crowded cities, there to huddle like sheep fleeing from a ferocious wolf.

Women opened the windows of my eyes and the doors of my spirit. Had it not been for the woman-mother, the woman-sister, and the woman-friend, I would have been sleeping among those who seek the tranquility of the world with their snoring.

The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reach us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

Upon the road of Zaad a traveler met a man who lived in a nearby village, and the traveler, pointing with his hand to a vast field, asked the man saying, 'Was not this the battleground where King Ahlam overcame his enemies' And the man answered and said,

Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit.

My house says to me, 'do not leave me, for here dwells your past.' And the road says to me, 'Come and follow me, for I am your future.' And I say to both my house and the road, 'I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death change all things.'

Poetry, my dear friends, is a sacred incarnation of a smile. Poetry is a sigh that dries the tears. Poetry is a spirit who dwells in the soul, whose nourishment is the heart, whose wine is affection. Poetry that comes not in this form is a false messiah.

God created music as a common language for all men. It inspires the poets, the composers and the architects. It lures us to search our souls for the meaning of the mysteries described in ancient books.

The mother is everythingshe is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness. He who loses his mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards him constantly.

The true wealth of a nation lies not in its gold or silver but in its learning, wisdom, and in the uprightness of its sons.

Happiness is a myth we seek, If manifested surely irks Like river speeding to the plain, On its arrival slows and murks. For man is happy only in His aspiration to the heights When he attains his goal, he cools And longs for other distant flights.

Be like the flower, turn your faces to the sun.

Money is like love it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man.

He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy.

He who does not seek advice is a fool. His folly blinds him to Truth and makes him evil, stubborn, and a danger to his fellow man.

Dying for Freedom is nobler than living in The shadow of weak submission, for He who embraces death with the sword Of Truth in his hand will eternalize With the Eternity of Truth, for Life Is weaker than Death and Death is Weaker than Truth.

Upon a day Beauty and Ugliness met on the shore of a sea. And they said to one another, 'Let us bathe in the sea.' Then they disrobed and swam in the waters. And after a while Ugliness came back to shore and garmented himself with the garments of Beauty and walked his way. And Beauty too came out of the sea, and found not her raiment, and she was too shy to be naked, therefore she dressed herself with the raiment of Ugliness. And Beauty walked her way. And to this very day men and women mistake the one for the other. Yet some there are who have beheld the face of Beauty, and they know her notwithstanding her garments. And some there be who know the face of Ugliness, and the cloth conceals him not from their eyes.

If your knowledge teaches you not the value of things, and frees you not from the bondage to matter, you shall never come near the throne of Truth.

He who repeats what he does not understand is no better than an ass that is loaded with books.

The thirst of soul is sweeter than the wine of material things, and the fear of spirit is dearer than the security of the body.

Said one oyster to a neighboring oyster, 'I have a very great pain within me. It is heavy and round and I am in distress.' And the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, 'Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and without.' At that moment a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who was well and whole both within and without, 'Yes, you are well and whole but the pain that your neighbor bears is a pearl of exceeding beauty.'

Give and Take ... For to the bee a flower is a fountain if life And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving is a need and an ecstasy.

He who understands you is greater kin to you than your own brother. For even your own kindred neither understand you nor know your true worth.

I once heard a learned man say, 'Every evil has its remedy, except folly. To reprimand an obstinate fool or to preach to a dolt is like writing upon the water. Christ healed the blind, the halt, the palsied, and the leprous. But the fool He could not cure.'

And you receiversand you are all receiversassume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free hearted earth for mother, and God for father.

The human heart cries out for help the human soul implores us for deliverance but we do not heed their cries, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him. Thus the nights pass, and we live in unawareness and the days greet us and embrace us. But we live in constant dread of day and night.

God has bestowed upon you intelligence and knowledge. Do not extinguish the lamp of Divine Grace and do not let the candle of wisdom die out in the darkness of lust and error. For a wise man approaches with his torch to light up the path of mankind.

If your knowledge teaches you not to rise above human weakness and misery and lead your fellow man on the right path, you are indeed a man of little worth and will remain such till Judgment Day.