Kahlil Gibran Quotes

“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.”

“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.”

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

“The power to Love is God's greatest gift to man, For it never will be taken from the Blessed one who loves.”

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness...just as strings of a lute dance alone though they quiver with the same music.”

“Love that is cleansed by tears will remain eternally pure and beautiful.”

“A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success.”

“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.”

“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."”

“How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything, but to be okay.”

“The giving and receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.”

“He was gentle, like a man mindful of his own strength. In my dreams I beheld the kings of the earth standing in awe in His presence.”

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the same well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?”

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

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding... And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy”

“Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?”

“Men would bless you or curse you;The curse, a protest against failure,The blessing, a hymn of the hunterWho comes back from the hillsWith provision for his mate.”

“A teacher can only lead you to the threshold of your own mind.”

“Love... it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.”

“Then a lawyer said, But what of our laws, master? And he answered: 'You delight in laying down laws. Yet you delight more in breaking them.”

“Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.”

“Braving obstacles and hardships is braver than retreat to tranquility.”

“Only yesterday I was no different than them, yet I was saved. I am explaining to you the way of life of a people who say every sort of wicked thing about me because I sacrificed their friendship to gain my own soul. I left the dark paths of their duplicity and turned my eyes toward the light where there is salvation, truth, and justice. They have exiled me now from their society, yet I am content. Mankind only exiles the one whose large spirit rebels against injustice and tyranny. He who does not prefer exile to servility is not free in the true and necessary sense of freedom.”

“Your joy can fill you only as deeply as your sorrow has carved you.”

“A word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.”