Kahlil Gibran Quotes

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”

“But now I have learned to listen to silence. To hear its choirs singing the song of ages, chanting the hymns of space, and disclosing the secrets of eternity.”

“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.”

“The only time a juggler / Appeals to me / Is when I see him / Miss the ball.”

“Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or cleverness juggling.”

“Love is trembling happiness.”

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

“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.”

“You cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty. Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.”

“I have pondered long, and I know now that only the pure of heart forgive the thirst that leads to dead waters. And only the sure of foot can give a hand to him who stumbles.”

“Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.”

“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.”

“You, the strong, have I loved, though the marks of your iron hoofs are yet upon my flesh.”

“If aught I have said is truth, that truth shall reveal itself in a clearer voice, and in words more kin to your thoughts.”

“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.”

“He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty.”

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”

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

“You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.”

“Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.”

“Even while the Earth sleeps we travel.”

“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.”

“Humanity is a river of light running from the ex-eternity to eternity.”

“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.”

“Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.”