Quotes & Sayings About Gibran

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding. — Kahlil Gibran

And from that day to this, the wise men of Ishana say one to another secretly, "Is it not known, and has it not been said from of old, that Ishana is ruled by an enemy?"
-Khalil Gibran — Kahlil Gibran

Marriage is like a golden ring in a chain, whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity. — Khalil Gibran

Reason without learning is like the untilled soil, or like the human body that lacks nourishment. — Khalil Gibran

Love gives nothing but itself, and takes nothing but from itself. Love does not possess, nor would it be possessed. And do not think that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. — Kahlil Gibran

The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God. — Khalil Gibran

Philosophy's work is finding the shortest path between two points. — Khalil Gibran

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

Yesterday is ever jealous of ... tomorrow. — Khalil Gibran

There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine. — Kahlil Gibran

Chapter23
On Prayer — Kahlil Gibran

Theban who acquires his wealth by inheritance builds his mansion with the weak poor's money. The clergyman erects his temple upon the graves and bones of the devoted worshippers. The prince grasps the fellah's arms while the priest empties his pocket; the ruler looks upon the sobs of the fields with frowning face, and the bishop consoles them with his smile, and between the frown of the tiger and the smile of the wolf the flock is perished; the ruler claims himself as king if the law, and the priest as the representative if god, and between these two, the bodies are destroyed and the souls wither into nothing. — Kahlil Gibran

Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled,
Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you.
And ever has it been that love knows not it's depth until the hour of separation — Kahlil Gibran

Because the soul is like a flower that folds its petals when dark comes, and breathes not its fragrance into the phantoms of the night. — Kahlil Gibran

When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense. — Kahlil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

Work is love made visible. And what is it to work with love? the poet Khalil Gibran wrote. In the hospital, working with love sometimes requires putting people in danger. — Theresa Brown

Sorrow is too great to exist in small hearts. — Khalil Gibran

Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man. — Khalil Gibran

A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success. — Khalil Gibran

Marriage is like a temple resting on two pillars. If they come too close to each other the temple will collapse. — Khalil Gibran

The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain. — Khalil Gibran

For a love to grow through the test of everyday living, one must respect that zone of privacy where one retires to relate to the inside instead of the outside. — Khalil Gibran

Poverty hides itself in thought before it surrenders to purses. — Khalil Gibran

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

Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality — Khalil Gibran

It was but yesterday I thought myself a fragment quivering without rhythm in the sphere of life. Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me. — Kahlil Gibran

Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward, And then I shall stand among you a seafarer among seafarers. — Kahlil Gibran

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. — 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

Hearts united in pain and sorrow
will not be separated by joy and happiness.
Bonds that are woven in sadness
are stronger than the ties of joy and pleasure.
Love that is washed by tears
will remain eternally pure and faithful. — Kahlil Gibran

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

The human heart cries out for help; the human soul implores us for deliverance; but we do not heed their cries, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him. — Kahlil Gibran

Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. — Kahlil Gibran

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper. — Kahlil Gibran

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

Keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life. — Khalil Gibran

He who repeats what he does not understand is no better than an ass that is loaded with books. — Khalil Gibran

MADNESS Madness is the first step towards unselfishness. Be mad and tell us what is behind the veil of "sanity." The purpose of life is to bring us closer to those secrets, and madness is the only means. SP-ST-62 — Kahlil Gibran

We measure time according to the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets.
Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place and the same time? — Kahlil Gibran

Humanity looks upon Jesus the Nazarene as a poor-born Who suffered misery and humiliation with all of the weak. And He is pitied, for Humanity believes He was crucified painfully ... And all that Humanity offers to Him is crying and wailing and lamentation. For centuries Humanity has been worshiping weakness in the person of the Savior. The Nazarene was not weak! He was strong and is strong! But the people refuse to heed the true meaning of strength. — Khalil Gibran

God made the world with a heart full of love,
Then He looked down from Heaven above,
And saw that we all need a helping hand,
Someone to share with, who'll understand.
He made special people to see us through
The glad times and the sad times, too;
A person on whom we can always depend,
Someone we can call a friend.
God made friends so we'll carry a part
Of His perfect love in all our hearts. — Khalil Gibran

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. — Kahlil Gibran

My friend, it was but a song of love out of a poet's heart, sung by every man to every woman. — Kahlil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; — Kahlil Gibran

Once there lived in the ancient city of Afkar two learned men who hated and belittled each other's learning. For one of them denied the existence of the gods and the other was a believer.
One day the two met in the market-place, and amidst their followers they began to dispute and to argue about the existence or the non-existence of the gods. And after hours of contention they parted.
That evening the unbeliever went to the temple and prostrated himself before the altar and prayed the gods to forgive his wayward past.
And the same hour the other learned man, he who had upheld the gods, burned his sacred books. For he had become an unbeliever. — Kahlil Gibran

You are far, far greater than you know - and all is well. — Kahlil Gibran

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. — Kahlil Gibran

You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun. — Kahlil Gibran

In the stillness of the night I have walked in your streets, and my spirit has entered your houses,
And your heart-beats were in my heart, and your breath was upon my face, and I knew you all.
Aye, I knew your joy and your pain, and in your sleep your dreams were my dreams.
And oftentimes I was among you a lake among the mountains.
I mirrored the summits in you and the bending slopes, and even the passing flocks of your thoughts and your desires.
And to my silence came the laughter of your children in streams, and the longing of your youths in rivers. — Kahlil Gibran

We are richer in material wealth than those villagers; but their spirit is a nobler spirit than ours. We — Kahlil Gibran

Miserable is the man who loves a woman and takes her for a wife, pouring at her feet the sweat of his skin and the blood of his body and the life of his heart, and placing in her hands the fruit of his toil and the revenue of hi s diligence; for when he slowly wakes up, he finds that the heart, which he endeavoured to buy, is given freely and in sincerity to another man for the enjoyment of its hidden secrets and deepest love. — Kahlil Gibran

Your thought describes laws, courts, judges, punishments. Mine explains that when man makes a law, he either violates it or obeys it. If there is a basic law, we are all one before it. He who disdains the mean is himself mean. He who vaunts his scorn of the sinful vaunts his disdain of all humanity. — Khalil Gibran

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Say not, ' I have found the path of the soul.' Say rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.' For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. — Kahlil Gibran

Love is timeless ...
Death does not separate the lover from the beloved. — Khalil Gibran

God has bestowed upon you intelligence and knowledge. Do not extinguish the lamp of Divine Grace and do not let the candle of wisdom die out in the darkness of lust and error. For a wise man approaches with his torch to light up the path of mankind. — Khalil Gibran

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 the ocean
by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy. — Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran says Your joy can fill you only as deeply your sorrow has carved you. — Karen Marie Moning

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness, And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream. And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space. Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless? And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds? And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless? — Khalil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.
The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.
And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.
And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.
In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence. — 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

Darkness may hide the trees
and the flowers from the eyes
but it cannot hide
love from the soul. — Kahlil Gibran

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; — Kahlil Gibran

Love is a gracious host to his guests though to the unbidden his house is a mirage and a mockery. — Khalil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. 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. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. — 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

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

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

The creator gives no heed to the critic unless he becomes a barren inventor. — Khalil Gibran

The truly good is he who is one with all those who are deemed bad. — Khalil Gibran

You are a slave to him whom you love because you love him.
And a slave to him who loves you because he loves you. — Kahlil Gibran

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness. — Kahlil Gibran

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt? — Khalil 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

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

To follow Beauty even when she shall lead you to the verge of the precipice; and though she is winged and you are wingless, and though she shall pass beyond the verge, follow her, for where Beauty is not, there is nothing; — Kahlil Gibran

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies. — Khalil Gibran

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

Out of my deeper heart a bird rose and flew skywards.
Higher and higher did it rise, yet larger and larger did it grow.
At first it was but like a swallow, then a lark, then an eagle, then as vast as a spring cloud, and then it filled the starry heavens.
Out of my heart a bird flew skywards. And it waxed larger as it flew. Yet it left not my heart. — Khalil Gibran

A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear. — Khalil Gibran

To be modest in speaking truth is hypocrisy. TM-ST-95 — Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore ... But let there be spaces in your togetherness ... Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not of the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. — 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

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall. — Kahlil Gibran

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

Yea, I shall return with the tide. — Kahlil Gibran

Do not blame a person for drinking lest he is trying to forget something more serious than drinking. — Kahlil Gibran

Love is the gentle smile upon the lips of beauty. — Khalil Gibran

Men would bless you or curse you; The curse, a protest against failure, The blessing, a hymn of the hunter Who comes back from the hills With provision for his mate. — Khalil Gibran

Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain? — Kahlil Gibran

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love; and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. — Kahlil Gibran

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

If winter should say, 'Spring is in my heart,' who would believe winter? — Khalil Gibran

Remember, one just man causes the Devil greater affliction than a million blind believers. — Khalil Gibran

And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space. — Kahlil Gibran

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason." And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion. — Kahlil Gibran

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