Khalil Gibran Quotes

The nearest to my heart are a king without a kingdom and a poor man who does not know how to beg.

The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

Between the shores of the oceans and the summit of the highest mountain is a secret route that you must absolutely take before being one with the sons of the Earth.

You progress not through what has been done, but reaching towards what has yet to be done.

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.

You are far, far greater than you know - and all is well.

When you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit. Work is love made visible

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

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?

Life is not only merriment,It is desire and determination.

Let us disperse from our aloofness and serve the weak who made us strong, and cleanse the country in which we live. Let us teach this miserable nation to smile and rejoice with heaven's bounty and glory of life and freedom.

We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.

Some think I wink at them when I shut my eyes to avoid their sight.

My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me to love what the people abhor and to show good will toward the one they hate. It showed me that Love is a property not of the lover but of the beloved. Before my Soul taught me, Love was for me a delicate thread stretched between two adjacent pegs, but now it has been transformed into a halo; its first is its last, and its last is its first. It encompasses every being, slowly expanding to embrace all that ever will be.

Wailing and lamentation befit those who stand before the throne of life and depart without leaving in its hands a drop of the sweat of their brows or the blood of their hearts.

Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness.

Science and religion are in full accord, but science and faith are in complete discord.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

The veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it.

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.

Love is a gracious host to his guests though to the unbidden his house is a mirage and a mockery.

Everyone has experienced that truth: that love, like a running brook, is disregarded, taken for granted; but when the brook freezes over, then people begin to remember how it was when it ran, and they want it to run again.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.

Some of our children are our justifications and some are but our regrets

And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.

I would not exchange the laughter of my heart for the fortunes of the multitudes.

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

And when you were a silent word upon Life's quivering lips, I too was there, another silent word. Then life uttered us and we came down the years throbbing with memories of yesterday and with longing for tomorrow, for yesterday was death conquered and tomorrow was birth pursued.

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Because the soul is like a flower that folds its petals when dark comes, and breathes not its fragrance into the phantoms of the night.

Your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one.

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.

Poverty hides itself in thought before it surrenders to purses.

Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?

My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me never to delight in praise or to be distressed by reproach. Before my Soul taught me, I doubted the value of my accomplishments until the passing days sent someone who would extol or disparage them. But now I know that trees blossom in the spring and give their fruits in the summer without any desire for accolades. And they scatter their leaves abroad in the fall and denude themselves in the winter without fear of reproof.

Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.

All men love you for themselves. I love you for yourself.

Behind the veil of each night, there is a smilling dawn.

I want every image to be the beginning of an unseen image.

Let your home be you mast and not your anchor.

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

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

Persecution cannot harm him who stands by Truth. Did not Socrates fall proudly a victim in body? Was not Paul stoned for the sake of the Truth? It is our inner selves that hurt us when we disobey it, and it kills us when we betray it.

Your friend is your needs answered.

The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.