Khalil Gibran Quotes

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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.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Work, 1923)

Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I? 
A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether. 
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sky.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet, 1923)

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

Khalil Gibran

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul."
Say rather, "I have found the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Self-Knowledge, 1923)

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet, 1923)

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your
laughter rises was oftentime filled with your tears...
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.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Joy and Sorrow, 1923)

Yea, we are twin brothers, O, Night; for thou revealest space and I reveal my soul.

Khalil Gibran (The Madman - Night and the Madman, 1918)

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Khalil Gibran

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

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet, 1923)

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Reason and Passion, 1923)

For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks."
Thus I became a madman.

Khalil Gibran (The Madman, 1918)

My thought is a tender leaf that sways in every direction and finds pleasure in its swaying.

Khalil Gibran

But memory is an autumn leaf that murmurs in the wind and then is heard no more.

Khalil Gibran (The Madman - And When My Joy Was Born, 1918)

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?

Khalil Gibran (Letter to May Ziadah)

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

Khalil Gibran (Sand and Foam, 1926)

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

Khalil Gibran

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

Khalil Gibran

We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Giving, 1923)

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

Khalil Gibran

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

Khalil Gibran

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.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Joy and Sorrow, 1923)

How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city. 
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? 
Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache. 
It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet, 1923)

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then shall you begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Death, 1923)

When love becomes vast love becomes wordless.
And when memory is overladen it seeks the silent deep.

Khalil Gibran

No matter how long the tyrant endures, he will be the loser at the end. Your thought differentiates between pragmatist and idealist, between the part and the whole, between the mystic and materialist. Mine realizes that life is one and its weights, measures and tables do not coincide with your weights, measures and tables. He whom you suppose an idealist may be a practical man.

Khalil Gibran

My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear — a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence.
The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable.
I would not have thee believe in what I say nor trust in what I do — for my words are naught but thy own thoughts in sound and my deeds thy own hopes in action.

Khalil Gibran (The Madman, 1918)

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.

Khalil Gibran (Spirits Rebellious, 1908)

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.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Teaching, 1923)

The seventh self remained watching and gazing at nothingness, which is behind all things.

Khalil Gibran (The Madman - The Seven Selves, 1918)

It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet - On Giving, 1923)

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Khalil Gibran Biography

Born: January 6, 1883
Died: April 10, 1931

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese artist, poet and writer. He is most commonly known for his book "The Prophet". Khalil is also one of the most succesful poets of all time.

Notable Works

The Madman (1918)
The Forerunner (1920)
The Prophet (1923)
Sand and Foam (1926)
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
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