356 Inspiring Quotes by Kahlil Gibran

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

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

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.

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.

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.

Philosophy began when man ate the produce of the earth and suffered indigestion.

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

The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.

And think not you can direct the course of love, For love, If it finds you worthy, Directs your course.

Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

Tortoises can tell you more about the road than hares.

You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care, nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

If I extend an empty hand and in retrieving it and finding it still empty, I feel disappointment, that is foolishness; yet if I extend a hand which is full and yet find no one to receive it, then that is hopelessness.

And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.

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

Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower.
Dream your dream to the sky and it will bring you your beloved.

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

Some who are too scrupulous to steal your possessions nevertheless see no wrong in tampering with your thoughts.

Should you really open your eyes and see, you would behold your image in all images. And should you open your ears and listen, you would hear your own voice in all voices.

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

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.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

You hate Jesus because someone from the North Country said He was the Son of God. But you hate one another because each of you deems himself too great to be the brother of the next man.

When you love you should not think you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

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

And your fragrance shall be my breath,
And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.

The true wealth of a nation lies not in it's gold or silver but in it's learning, wisdom and in the uprightness of its sons.

I learnt silence from the talkative.

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.

Disagreement may be the shortest cut between two minds.

Work with love, it is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart.

If it were not for our conception of weights and measures we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun.

Cover me with soft earth, and let each handful be mixed With seeds ofjasmine, lilies, and myrtle; and when they Grow above me and thrive on my body's element they will Breathe the fragrance of my heart into space.

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.

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

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Your body is the harp of the soul.

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?

For love is sufficient unto love.

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?

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

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

Make me, oh God, the prey of the Lion, ere you make the rabbit my prey.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond.

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

The wolves prey upon the lambs in the darkness of the night, but the blood stains remain upon the stones in the valley until the dawn comes, and the sun reveals the crime to all.

Passionate love is a quenchless thirst.

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

A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.

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

When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.

Love passes by us, robed in meekness; but we flee from her in fear, or hide in the darkness; or else pursue her, to do evil in her name.

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

For what is prayer but the expansion of your self into the living ether?

When the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

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

Say not, I have found the path of the soul Say rather, I have met the soul walking upon my path.

The first glance from the eyes of the beloved is like the spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, giving birth to heaven and earth.

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

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.

A word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.

Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me? A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.

Your confidence in the people, and your doubt about them, are closely related to your self-confidence and your self-doubt.

And alone and without his nest shall the Eagle fly across the sun.

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

Spare me the political events and power struggles, as the whole earth is my homeland and all men are my fellow countrymen.

Knowledge and understanding are life's faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown, and understanding your staff; and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasures.

Happiness is a vine that takes root and grows within the heart, never outside it.

And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.

Be like a flower and turn your face to the sun.

A bigot is a stone-deaf orator.

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

Nature reaches out to us with welcoming arms, and bids us enjoy her beauty; but we dread her silence and rush into the crowded cities, there to huddle like sheep fleeing from a ferocious wolf.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end.

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of the oceans.

The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude. And I would not have the tears that sadness makes to flow from my every part turn into laughter. I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.

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

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

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 sun.

He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.

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?

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

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast
It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye.

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.

Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit.

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. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

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.

Now let us play hide and seek. Should you hide in my heart it would not be difficult to find you. But should you hide behind your own shell, then it would be useless for anyone to seek you.

My yearning is my cup, my burning thirst is my drink, and my solitude is my intoxication; I do not and shall not quench my thirst. But in this burning that is never extinguished is a joy that never wanes.

The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.

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?

The mountain veiled in mist is not a hill; an oak tree in the rain is not a weeping willow.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

Know, therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return... Forget not that I shall come back to you... A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

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

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.

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

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.

All you have shall some day be given. Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

What shall i say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.

The only time a juggler Appeals to me Is when I see him Miss the ball.

Virtue tested: "Have I not survived hunger and thirst, suffering, and mockery for the sake of the truth which heaven has awakened in my heart?

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

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

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 was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much.

In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of people's wrath.

A man can be free without being great, but no man can be great without being free.

Joy and sorrow are inseparable... together they come and when one sits alone with you... remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist, Nor can it be hidden where it truly does. Anonymous Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love.

I use hate as a weapon to defend myself; had I been strong, I would never have needed that kind of weapon.

For the criminal who is weak and poor the narrow cell of death awaits; but honor and glory await the rich who conceal their crimes behind their gold and silver and inherited glory.

Marriage is the golden ring in a chain whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity.

Our pain carves out a larger space for love to fill.

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

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rises above its own ashes.

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

Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names.

Let there be spaces in your togetherness...just as strings of a lute dance alone though they quiver with the same music.

Between the shores of the oceans and the summit of the highest mountain is a secret route that you must absolutely take before being one with the sons of the Earth.

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

The veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it.

Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

Welcher Verdienst wäre größer als der Mut und das Vertrauen, ja auch die Nächstenliebe, die im Empfangen liegt?

The highest virtue here may be least in another world.

You progress not through what has been done, but reaching towards what has yet to be done.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

The first thought of God was an angel. The first word of God was a man.

Perhaps a man may commit suicide in self-defense.

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

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

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.

The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable.

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

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

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.

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

Strange that creatures without backbones have the hardest shells.

Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or cleverness juggling.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

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

Work is love made visible.

Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.

Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

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

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.

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

Science and religion are in full accord, but science and faith are in complete discord.

Your house is your larger body.

Many are the places of worship, but few indeed are those who worship in Spirit and in truth.

Love... it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

The most solid stone in the structure is the lowest one in the foundation.

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

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

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

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.

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.

If it's a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain... When you are joyous look deep into your heart and you will find that it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

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.

The subtlest beauties in our life are unseen and unheard.

I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us.

The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.

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

Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.

Even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation.

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

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Let your best be for your friend.

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

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness, nor regret having been deaf. For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things. And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light.

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.

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

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

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

Give and Take...

For to the bee a flower is a fountain if life

And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love

And to both, bee and flower,

the giving and the receiving is a need and an ecstasy.

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.

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.

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

A teacher can only lead you to the threshold of your own mind.

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

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

Why dispute what we shall be, when we know not even what we are.

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

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

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

Then a lawyer said, But what of our laws, master? And he answered: 'You delight in laying down laws. Yet you delight more in breaking them.

You cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty. Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.

And one of the elders of the city, said, speak to us of good and evil.
And he answered:
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.

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

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

Only love and death will change all things.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping,
For only the hand of God can contain your hearts.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be
clearer in his absence,
as the mountain to the climber
is clearer from the plain.

The soul is an embryo in the body of Man, and the day of death is the Day of awakening, for it is the Great era of labour and the rich Hour of creation.

The shepherd will deny the diseased lamb in fear of the flock.

I discovered the secret of the sea in meditation upon a dewdrop.

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

Education sows not seeds in you, but makes your seeds grow.

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

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind undo the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

Rest in reason. Move in Passion.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

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

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

You have your ideology and I have mine.

Your friend is your needs answered.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

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

The biggest thing in today's sorrow is the memory of yesterday's joy.

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

Wailing and lamentation befit those who stand before the throne of life and depart without leaving in its hands a drop of the sweat of their brows or the blood of their hearts.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness, for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow that is stable.

We fear death, yet we long for slumber and beautiful dreams.

Euer Haus ist euer größerer Körper.

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.

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.

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

He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy.

Only those beneath me can envy or hate me. I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one. Only those above me can praise or belittle me. I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

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

Those to whom worshiping is a window, to open but also to shut, have not yet visited the house of their souls whose windows are open from dawn to dawn.

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

What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?

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.

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.

The strong grows in solitude where the weak withers away.

If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one.

And you would accept the seasons of your heart just as you have always accepted that seasons pass over your fields and you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

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

If your knowledge teaches you not to rise above human weakness and misery and lead your fellow man on the right path, you are indeed a man of little worth and will remain such till Judgment Day.

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

Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation.

If any of you would bring judgment the unfaithful wife, let him also weight the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.

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

The saint and the sinner are twin brothers...one was born but the moment before the other.

Desire is half of life, indifference is half of death.

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

Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.

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?

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

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

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.

The thirst of soul is sweeter than the wine of material things, and the fear of spirit is dearer than the security of the body.

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

Saying this, he turned his head toward the window as if he were trying to solve the problems of human existence by concentrating on the beauty of the universe.

And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?

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.

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

It has been said that next to hunger and thirst, our most basic human need is for storytelling.

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

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

Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.

Let ignorance reproduce itself until it is weary of its own offspring.

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

When God created Man, he gave him Music as a language different from all other languages. And early man sang his glory in the wilderness; and drew the hearts of kings and moved them from their thrones.

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.

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

A minute moving among the patterns of beauty and the dreams of love is greater and more precious than an age filled with splendor granted by the weak to the strong.

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

Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

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 you are the mirror.

Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

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.

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

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

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

The real test of good manners is to be able to put up with bad manners pleasantly.