Quotes by Khalil Gibran

“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.”

“Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.”

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

“Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.”

“For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.”

“If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.”

“Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.”

“The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.”

“I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.”

“Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.”

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

“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”

“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.”

“Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.”

“Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.”

“March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.”

“Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.”

“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.”

“Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”

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

“The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.”

“The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.”

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

“Love is trembling happiness.”

“Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.”

“No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.”

“Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.”

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.”

“Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.”

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

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.”

“To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.”

“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.”

“Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.”

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

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.”

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”

“But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

“And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

“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.”

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

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

“Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.”

“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.”

“Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love love recompenses the adorers.”

“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?”

“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”

“Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?”

“If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.”

“When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. 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.”

“Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.”

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

“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.”

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.”

“Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.”

“Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'”

“Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.”

“Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.”

“Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.”

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

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”

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