Kahlil Gibran Quotes

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

Let ignorance reproduce itself until it is weary of its own offspring.

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

The sorrowful spirit finds relaxation in solitude. It abhors people, as a wounded deer deserts the herd and lives in a cave until it is healed or dead.

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

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil. For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have an audience.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

The feelings we live through in love and in loneliness are simply, for us, what high tide and low tide are to the sea.

The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.

At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul. At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my ignorance upon the shore.

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.

It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much.

Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

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

Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.

Reason without learning is like the untilled soil, or like the human body that lacks nourishment.

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.

The bird has an honor that man does not have. Man lives in the traps of his abdicated laws and traditions; but the birds live according to the natural law of God who causes the earth to turn around the sun.

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. Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater." But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

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

You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life.

When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison." And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful.

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

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.

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

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech, Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose. And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

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.

The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love

In the mouth of Society are many diseased teeth, decayed to the bones of the jaws. But Society makes no effort to have them extracted and be rid of the affliction. It contents itself with gold fillings.

When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there, a wandering desire. Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born. And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.

Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.

If winter should say, 'Spring is in my heart,' who would believe winter?

You often say ; I would give , but only to the deserving, The trees in your orchard say not so , nor the flocks in your pasture. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and nights is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. See first that youyourself deserve to be a giver , and an insturument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you , who deem yourself a giver , is but a witness.

Trickery succeeds sometimes, but it always commits suicide.

Life is weaker than Death and Death is weaker than Truth.

Listen to the women when she looks at you, not when she talks to you.

Madness is the first step towards unselfishness. Be mad and tell us what is behind the veil of "sanity". The purpose of life is to bring us closer to those secrets, and madness is the only means.

Saying this, he turned his head toward the window as if he were trying to solve the problems of human existence by concentrating on the beauty of the universe.

Now let us play hide and seek. Should you hide in my heart it would not be difficult to find you. But should you hide behind your own shell, then it would be useless for anyone to seek you.

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

Perhaps a man may commit suicide in self-defense.

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

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

That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined. Is it not your breath that has erected and hardened the structure of your bones?

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

Disagreement may be the shortest cut between two minds.

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

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

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

The first glance from the eyes of the beloved is like the spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, giving birth to heaven and earth.

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.

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.

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 in the twilight of memory we should meet once more,we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song. And if our hands should meet in another dream we shall build another tower in the sky.

The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.

Qualities of Good Citizens... is to admire what others have created in love and faith