Kahlil Gibran Quotes & Sayings

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line. — Kahlil Gibran

We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without. — Kahlil Gibran

Self is a sea boundless and measureless. — Kahlil Gibran

Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the goodness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he goes. He who does not see the kingdom of heaven in this life will never see it in the coming life. We came not into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life. — Kahlil Gibran

Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness. — Kahlil Gibran

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

You have walked among us a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon our faces. — Kahlil Gibran

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. And when he speaks to you believe in him,Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. — Kahlil Gibran

Said the Eye one day, "I see beyond these valleys a mountain veiled with blue mist. Is it not beautiful?" The Ear listened, and after listening intently awhile, said, "But where is any mountain? I — Kahlil Gibran

Shall there come a day when wise men are able to unite the dreams of youth and the delights of learning as reproach brings together hearts in conflict? Shall there come a day when man's teacher is nature, and humanity is his book — Kahlil Gibran

Paradise is there, behind that door, in the next room; but I have lost the key.
Perhaps I have only mislaid it. — Kahlil Gibran

I am a stranger in this world, and there is a severe solitude and painful lonesomeness in my exile. — Kahlil Gibran

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral. — Kahlil Gibran

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror. — Kahlil Gibran

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. — Kahlil Gibran

Hearts that are united through the medium of sorrow will not be separated by the glory of happiness. Love — Kahlil Gibran

If the Milky Way were not within me how should I have seen it or known it? — Kahlil Gibran

Our world is so complex that we take for granted engineering processes that would dwarf any of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World; we ride railroad tracks that do not follow faithfully the curvature of the earth, for the train would jump the tracks if they were level. We pass skyscrapers whose stress and strain are figured to the millionth of an inch, yet take for granted that the Empire State Building actually sways constantly many feet. If we are religiously inclined, we take going to the church of our choice for granted; if we are non believers, we give no second thought to the fact that we do not have to attend religious services if we do not choose. Yet the very privilege of non-belief represents the victory of philosophy; otherwise the non-churchgoer would still face the lions or the stake. — Kahlil Gibran

Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst. — Kahlil Gibran

Come, let us drink the last raindrop tears from a narcissus cup and fill our souls with the songs of larks. — Kahlil Gibran

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. Only when you're empty you're at standstill and balance. — Kahlil Gibran

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 — Kahlil Gibran

I tell you as well as myself: what we see with our own eyes is nothing other than a cloud concealing what we should perceive with our inner sight, while what we listen to with our ears is merely a ringing sound disturbing what we should understand with our hearts. When we see a man being taken to prion by a police officer let us not hasten to assume he is a wrong-doer. When we see a corpse, and a man standing beside it with bloodstained hands, let us not conclude that this is a victim and his assassin. When we hear one man singing and another lamenting, let us ascertain which one of the two is truly happy. — Kahlil Gibran

You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing? — Kahlil Gibran

What is fear of need but need itself? — Kahlil Gibran

Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of the seasons — Kahlil Gibran

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives? — Kahlil Gibran

Life kisses our faces every morning. Yet, between morning and evening, she laughs at our sorrows. — Kahlil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

If this is my day of harvest, in what fields have I sowed the seed, and in what unremembered seasons? — Kahlil Gibran

Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.
Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward, — Kahlil Gibran

I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us. — Kahlil Gibran

Forget not that the earth likes to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Khalil Gibran — Kahlil Gibran

We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions. — Kahlil Gibran

Let your home be you mast and not your anchor. — Kahlil Gibran

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. — Kahlil Gibran

They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression. He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty. — Kahlil Gibran

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle. — Kahlil Gibran

Man's needs change, but not his love, nor his desire that his love should satisfy his needs. — Kahlil Gibran

The sorrowful spirit finds relaxation in solitude. — Kahlil Gibran

You are good when you are one with yourself. — Kahlil Gibran

Art thou like me, child of my darkest heart? And dost thou think my untamed thoughts and speak my vast language?"
"Yea, we are twin brothers, O, Night; for thou revealest space and I reveal my soul. — Kahlil Gibran

It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations. — Kahlil Gibran

Some of our children are our justifications and some are but our regrets. — Kahlil Gibran

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

Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.
You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. — Kahlil Gibran

And when you were a silent word upon Life's quivering lips, I too was there, another silent word. Then life uttered us and we came down the years throbbing with memories of yesterday and with longing for tomorrow, for yesterday was death conquered and tomorrow was birth pursued. — Kahlil Gibran

The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves. I am one of those who remembers those places regardless of distance or time. — Kahlil Gibran

Song of the rain
iam dotted silverthreads dropped from heaven by the gods ,nature then takes me to adornher fields and valleys
iam beautiful pears plucked from the crown of ishtar by the daugter of down to embellish the garden
when icry the hills laugh when i humble my self the flower rejoice when i bow all the things are elated — Kahlil Gibran

You are the way and the wayfarers. — Kahlil Gibran

But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, — Kahlil Gibran

The lust for comfort kills the passions of the soul. — Kahlil Gibran

But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you? — Kahlil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves. — Kahlil Gibran

As the strings of a lute are apart though they quiver the same music. — Kahlil Gibran

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

Behind the veil of each night, there is a smiling dawn. — Kahlil Gibran

Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost. — Kahlil Gibran

Substantial things deaden a man without suffering; love awakens him with enlivening pains. — Kahlil Gibran

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite. — Kahlil Gibran

Said a sheet of snow-white paper, "Pure was I created, and pure will I remain forever. I would rather be burnt and turn to white ashes than suffer darkness to touch me or the unclean to come near me." The ink-bottle heard what the paper was saying, and it laughed in its dark heart; but it never dared to approach her. And the multicoloured pencils heard her also, and they too never came near her. And the snow-white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste forever, pure and chaste - and empty. — Kahlil Gibran

Hurry, oh peaceful Death, and carry me from these multitudes who left me in the dark corner of oblivion because I do not bleed the weak as they do. Come, oh gentle Death, and enfold me under your white wings, for my fellowmen are not in want of me. Embrace — Kahlil Gibran

Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy their great virtues. — Kahlil Gibran

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed. — Kahlil Gibran

Fear not the phantom of death,
My Countrymen, for his greatness
And mercy will refuse to approach
Your smallness; and dread not the
Dagger, for it will decline to be
Lodged in your shallow hearts. — Kahlil Gibran

And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand. — Kahlil Gibran

When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet. — Kahlil Gibran

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'. — Kahlil Gibran

COURSER My soul, living is like a courser of the night; the swifter its flight, the nearer the dawn. WM-ST-69 — Kahlil Gibran

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention. — Kahlil Gibran

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. — Kahlil Gibran

A God who is good knows no segregation amongst words or names. And were a God to deny his blessing to those who pursue a different path to eternity, there would be no human who should offer worship. — Kahlil Gibran

He drank life from these breasts now dry, and he took his first steps in this garden, grasping these fingers that are now like trembling reeds. — Kahlil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

Accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief. — Kahlil Gibran

Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes. — Kahlil Gibran

How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth? — Kahlil Gibran

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? — Kahlil Gibran

How often have you sailed in my dreams. And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream. — Kahlil Gibran

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. — Kahlil Gibran

It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone ... but it takes a lifetime to forget someone. — Kahlil Gibran

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. — Kahlil Gibran

Said one oyster to a neighboring oyster, "I have a great pain within me. It is heavy and round and I am in distress".
And the other oyster replied with a haughty complacence, "Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole within an without".
At that moment, a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who was well and whole both within and without, "Yes, you are well and whole; but the pain that your neighbor bears is a pearl of exceeding beauty". — Kahlil Gibran

Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.
You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone. — Kahlil Gibran

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

And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words. — Kahlil Gibran

One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's. — Kahlil Gibran

In your winter you deny your spring, — Kahlil Gibran

Long ago you were a dream in your mother's sleep, and then she awoke to give you birth. — Kahlil Gibran

Not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city. — Kahlil Gibran

follow the steps trust them and yourself — Kahlil Gibran

And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation. — Kahlil Gibran

Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face. — Kahlil Gibran

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? — Kahlil Gibran

You may chain my hands, you may shackle my feet; you may even throw me into a dark prison; but you shall not enslave my thinking, because it is free! — Kahlil Gibran

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds? — Kahlil Gibran

You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself. — Kahlil Gibran

SPRING In every winter's heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a smiling dawn. SP-ST-57 — Kahlil Gibran

I have loved humanity, I have loved it so much. For me, there are three kinds of men; he who curses life, he who blesses it and he who contemplates it. I loved the first for his wretchedness, the second for his indulgence and the third for his perception. — Kahlil Gibran