Gibran Kahlil Quotes & Sayings

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

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

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. — Kahlil Gibran

All these things have you said of beauty.
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.
People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and your are the mirror. — Kahlil 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

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. — Kahlil Gibran

A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes — 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

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. — Kahlil Gibran

For the soul walks upon all paths. — Kahlil 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

When a person loses a friend, he consoles himself with the many other friends about him, and if he loses his gold, he meditates for a while and casts misfortune from his mind, especially when he finds himself healthy and still laden with ambition. But when a man loses the ease of his heart, where can he find comfort, and with what can he replace it? What mind can master it? — Kahlil Gibran

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. — Kahlil Gibran

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. — 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

O love, whose lordly hand
Has bridled my desires,
And raised my hunger and my thirst
To dignity and pride,
Let not the strong in me and the constant
Eat the bread or drink the wine
That tempt my weaker self.
Let me rather starve,
And let my heart parch with thirst,
And let me die and perish,
Ere I stretch my hand
To a cup you did not fill,
Or a bowl you did not bless. — Kahlil Gibran

You often say ; I would give , but only to the deserving, The trees in your orchard say not so , nor the flocks in your pasture.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and nights is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver , and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you , who deem yourself a giver , is but a witness. — Kahlil Gibran

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you with hold the "aye. — 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

Seven times I have despised my soul:
The first time when I saw her being meek that she might attain height.
The second time when I saw her limping before the crippled.
The third time when she was given to choose between the hard and the easy, and she chose the easy.
The fourth time when she committed a wrong, and comforted herself that others also commit wrong.
The fifth time when she forbode for weakness, and attributed her patience to strength.
The sixth time when she despised the ugliness of a face, and knew not that it was one of her own masks.
And the seventh time when she sang a song of praise, and deemed it a virtue. — Kahlil Gibran

Defeat, my defeat, my deathless courage, You and I shall laugh together with the storm, And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us, and we shall stand in the sun with a will, And we shall be dangerous — Kahlil Gibran

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then a scholar said, "Speak of talking." And he answered, saying: "And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. — Kahlil Gibran

And an old priest said, Speak to us of Religion.
And he said:
Who can separate his faith from his actions?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?" ...
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked ...
And he to whom worshiping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul ... — Kahlil Gibran

When life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind. — 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

Is life like this? Is it a past that goes by, then crumbles away, and a present that runs in the wake of the past, and a future that can only be grasped if one talks of it in the present or past tense? — Kahlil Gibran

If you reveal your secrets to the wind,
you should not blame the wind for
revealing them to the trees. — Kahlil Gibran

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

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. — Kahlil Gibran

Forgetfulness is a form of freedom. — Kahlil Gibran

Now I know that here is something higher than heaven and deeper than ocean and stranger than life and death and time. I know now what I did not know before. — Kahlil Gibran

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything. — Quincy Jones

And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, buy of their gifts also.
For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul. — Kahlil Gibran

A truly religious man does not embrace a religion; and he who embraces one has no religion. — Kahlil Gibran

We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us: — Kahlil Gibran

A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world. — Kahlil Gibran

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. — Kahlil Gibran

Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. — Kahlil Gibran

I always quoted to my parents from Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet." Your children are not your children. They come through you, but not from you. You can give them your love, but not your thoughts, for they come from a land that you cannot enter, not even in your wildest dreams. — Andrew Young

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

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

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

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

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

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; — Kahlil 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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