Kahlil Gibran Quotes

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.”

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

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.”

“And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.”

“I would not exchange the laughter of my heart for the fortunes of the multitudes; nor would I be content with converting my tears, invited by my agonized self, into calm. It is my fervent hope that my whole life on this earth will ever be tears and laughter. Tears that purify my heart and reveal to me the secret of life and its mystery, Laughter that brings me closer to my fellow men; Tears with which I join the broken-hearted, Laugher that symbolizes joy over my very existence.”

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”

“There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.”

“That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness, will appear tomorrow as an essential link in the complete chain of Man.”

“Hell is not in torture; Hell is in an empty heart.”

“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.”

“History does not repeat itself except in the minds of those who do not know history.”

“Sit by me, my beloved, and listen to my heart; smile, for your happiness is a symbol of our future.”

“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.”

“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link. This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link. To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam. To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”

“Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.”

“You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.”

“Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me? A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?”

“Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy their great virtues.”

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.”

“And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree.”

“The shepherd will deny the diseased lamb in fear of the flock.”

“Philosophy began when man ate the produce of the earth and suffered indigestion.”

“For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.”

“My brothers, seek counsel of one another, for therein lies the way out of error and futile repentance. The wisdom of the many is your shield against tyranny. For when we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.”

“A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said, “I will have a camel for lunch today.” And all morning he went about looking for camels. But at noon he saw his shadow again-and he said, “A mouse will do.”

“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.”

“I learnt silence from the talkative”

“And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.”

“I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath; I am the memory of a moment of happiness; I am the last gift of the living to the dead; I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.”

“Like sheaves of corn it gathers you unto itself. It threshes you to make you naked. It sifts you to free you from your husks. It grinds you to whiteness. It kneads you until you are pliant. And then it assigns you to its sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's Heart.”

“Remembrance is a form of meeting.”

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

“When I planted my pain in the field of patience it bore fruit of happiness.”

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

“For the sight of the angry weather saddens my soul and the sight of the town, sitting like a bereaved mother beneath layers of ice, oppresses my heart.”

“We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting”

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

“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.”

“For love is sufficient unto love.”

“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.”

“The snow and the storm destroy the flower; but its seed they cannot kill.”

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude. And I would not have the tears that sadness makes to flow from my every part turn into laughter. I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.”

“Spiritual awakening is the most essential thing in man's life, and it is the sole purpose of being. Is not civilization, in all its tragic forms, a supreme motive for spiritual awakening?”

“All these things shall love do unto youthat you may know the secrets of your heart,and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.”

“The best love come from the heart, not from the mouth.”

“There is within me a friend who consoles me every time that troubles overwhelm me and misfortunes afflict me. The man who does not feel friendship towards himself is a public enemy, and he who finds no confidant within himself will die of despair. For life streams out of man's inner self and in no way from what surrounds him.”