Khalil Gibran Quotes

Am I less man because I believe in a greater man?

Extreme torture is mute, and so we sat silent, petrified, like columns of marble buried under the sand of an earthquake. Neither wished to listen to the other because our heart-threads had become weak and even breathing would have broken them.

Even while the Earth sleeps we travel.

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.

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

All can hear, but only the sensitive can understand.

Much of your pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility: For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen, And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

I am bored with gabbers and their gab; my soul abhors them. . . . Is there any place where there is no traffic in empty talk? Is there on this earth one who does not worship himself talking?

Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names. It was love lashed by its own self that spoke. It was pride half slain that fluttered in the dust. It was my hunger for your love that raged from the housetop, while my own love, kneeling in silence, prayed your forgiveness.

The philosopher's soul dwells in his head, the poet's soul is in his heart; the singer's soul lingers about his throat, but the soul of the dancer abides in all her body.

For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks." Thus I became a madman.

Your saying 'I do not understand you' is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve.

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

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

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.

It is only when you are pursued that you become swift.

Love is trembling happiness.

He that tries to seize an opportunity after it has passed him by is like one who sees it approach but will not go to meet it.

Spare me the political events and power struggles, as the whole earth is my homeland and all men are my fellow countrymen.

Hearts united in pain and sorrow will not be separated by joy and happiness. Bonds that are woven in sadness are stronger than the ties of joy and pleasure. Love that is washed by tears will remain eternally pure and faithful.

Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.

As the strings of a lute are apart though they quiver the same music.

Life without Freedom is like a body without a soul, and Freedom without Thought is like a confused spirit. . . . Life, Freedom and Thought are three-in-one, and are everlasting and shall never pass away.

When you have grasped a problem clearly, face it with resolution, for that is the way of the strong.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; and to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.

Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness, nor regret having been deaf. For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things. And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light.

Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net. For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower. Dream your dream to the sky and it will bring you your beloved.

Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line. For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

When a man's hand touches the hand of a woman, they both touch the heart of eternity.

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

I said to Life, I would hear Death speak. And Life raised her voice a little higher and said, You hear him now.

Some who are too scrupulous to steal your possessions nevertheless see no wrong in tampering with your thoughts.

When you love you should not think you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

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.

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.

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

Miserable is the man who loves a woman and takes her for his wife, pouring at her feet the sweat of his skin and the blood of his body and the life of his heart, and placing her in the hands of the fruit of his toil and the revenue of his diligence; for when he slowly wakes up, he finds that the heart that he endeavored to buy is given away freely and in sincerity to another man for the enjoyment of its hidden secrets and deepest love.

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

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

They say: 'If a man knew himself, he would know all mankind.' I say: 'If a man loved mankind, he would know something of himself.

Is not the beautiful moon, that inspires poets, the same moon which angers the silence of the sea with a terrible roar?

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.

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.