Khalil Gibran Quotes

Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.

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.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

Your friend is your needs answered.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

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

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.

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.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

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

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

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.

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

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.

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.

You have your ideology and I have mine.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

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

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

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

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

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

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

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

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.

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

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

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

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

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

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

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.

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

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

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

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

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

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

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.