Khalil gibran quotes

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.

How distant I am from people when I am with them, and how close when they are far away.

God created music as a common language for all men. It inspires the poets, the composers and the architects. It lures us to search our souls for the meaning of the mysteries described in ancient books.

That deepest thing, that recognition, that knowledge, that sense of kinship began the first time I saw you,and it is the same now - only a thousand times deeper and tenderer. I shall love you to eternity. I loved you long before we met in this flesh. I knew that when I first saw you. It was destiny. We are together like this and nothing can shake us apart.

If I accept the sunshine and warmth, then I must also accept the thunder and lightning.

If I could take your troubles I would toss them into the sea, But all these things I'm finding Are impossible for me. I cannot build a mountain Or catch a rainbow fair, But let me be what I know best, A friend that is always there.

And God said, Love your enemy, & I obeyed Him & loved myself.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.

In the depths of your hopes and desires, lies your silent knowledge of the beyond, and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow, your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights.

Love is not without its flaws. The stronger the love, the more it tests you. Compassion and empathy will make true love persist.

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

I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.

Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the faults of others.

Said one oyster to a neighboring oyster, "I have a very great pain within me. It is heavy and round and I am in distress." And the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, "Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and 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."

In every winter's heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a shining dawn.

Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course.

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

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

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

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

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

Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.

All men love you for themselves. I love you for yourself.

The best of man is he who blushes when you praise him and remains silent when you defame him.

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.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

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

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

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.

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 from 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.

Be like the flower, turn your faces to the sun.

We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.

Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.

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

The silence of the envious is too noisy.

Love has the power that dispels death; charm that conquers the enemy.

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

The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.

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.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

Let passion fill your sails, but let reason be your rudder.

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

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

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

You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge.

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

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.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.

Jesus was not sent here to teach the people to build magnificent churches and temples amidst the cold wretched huts and dismal hovels. He came to make the human heart a temple, and the soul an altar, and the mind a priest.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

Only once have I been made mute. It was when a man asked me, 'Who are you?'

Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

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!

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

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

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.

All can hear, but only the sensitive can understand.

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.

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

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.

They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.

Your joy can fill you only as deeply as your sorrow has carved you.

An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.

Listen to the women when she looks at you, not when she talks to you.

Each day look into your conscience and amend your faults; if you fail in this duty you will be untrue to the Knowledge and Reason that are within you. Keep a watchful eye over yourself as if you were your own enemy; for you cannot learn to govern yourself, unless you first learn to govern your own passions and obey the dictates of your conscience.

I deserted the world and sought solitude because I became tired of rendering courtesy to those multitudes who believe that humility is a sort of weakness, and mercy a kind of cowardice, and snobbery a form of strength.

Do not be merciful, but be just, for mercy is bestowed upon the guilty criminal, while Justice is all that the innocent man requires.

Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.

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.

From a sensitive woman's heart springs the happiness of mankind, and from the kindness of her noble spirit comes mankind's affection.

Love is a sacred mystery. To those who love, it remains forever wordless; But to those who do not love, it may be but a heartless jest.

Love is a magic ray emitted from the burning core of the soul and illuminating the surrounding earth. It enables us to perceive life as a beautiful dream between one awakening and another.

Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear.

Darkness is dawn not yet born.

You shall be held down by the chains of your own judgment.

I do not want you to hear that I LOVE you, but I want you to feel it without me having to say.

God has created several doors which open onto truth. He opens them to all those who knock on them with the hand of faith.

Behind the veil of each night, there is a smilling dawn.

Strange that creatures without backbones have the hardest shells.

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.

I love you, my brother, whoever you are - whether you worship in a church, kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque. You and I are children of one faith, for the diverse paths of religion are fingers of the loving hand of the one supreme being, a hand extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive all.

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

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.

Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.

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

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

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.

To belittle, you have to be little.

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

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

Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.

Do not keep crying when your love has been gone. You only need Smile because he had been given you the opportunity to meet someone who is better.

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

How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything, but to be okay.

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.

There must be something strangely sacred about salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.

A traveller I am, and a navigator, and everyday I discover a new region within my soul.

You may forget with whom you laughed, but you will never forget with whom you wept.

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

The sun teaches to all things that grow their longing for the light. But it is night that raises them to the stars.

Mother: the most beautiful word on the lips of mankind.

Truth is like the stars; it does not appear except from behind obscurity of the night. Truth is like all beautiful things in the world; it does not disclose its desirability except to those who first feel the influence of falsehood. Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

The mother is everything - she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness. He who loses his mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards him constantly

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

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.

The strong grows in solitude where the weak withers away.

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?

In the depth of my soul there is a wordless song.

Every man is two men; one is awake in the darkness, the other asleep in the light.

All things in this vast universe exist in you, with you, and for you.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

No human relation gives one possession in another—every two souls are absolutely different. In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone.

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

Tortoises can tell you more about the road than hares.

We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.