Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran

by Kahlil Gibran

  1908

  Publishes a second book of short stories, Spirits Rebellious. Goes to Paris to study art through the generosity of Mary Haskell; is influenced by the Symbolist movement.

  1910

  Returns to Boston. Publishes a book of prose poems, Beyond the Imagination, in Cairo.

  1911

  Rents a small studio apartment in New York. Begins his manuscript for The Madman in English. Meets and draws Yeats.

  1912

  Settles in New York City. His novel, Broken Wings, dedicated to Mary Haskell, is published in New York in Arabic. Meets and draws Abdu'l-Baha, then leader of the Baha'i faith.

  1913

  Meets and draws Carl Jung.

  1914

  A Tear and a Smile, a collection of prose poems, is published in Arabic in New York. Exhibit of Gibran's paintings takes place at Montross Gallery in New York.

  1916

  Publishes several prose poems in English in the new literary journal, "Seven Arts."

  1917

  Exhibit of his work by M. Knoedler & Co., New York.

  1918

  Turning point in Gibran's literary career comes with the publication of The Madman in English. He becomes more outspoken in his political views: on the makeup of the emerging countries Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, Gibran calls on politicians to adopt the positive aspects of the Western culture--even as he was introducing Western culture to the mysticism of the East.

  1920

  Founding of the Arab literary group "Pen League" in New York. Gibran publishes The Forerunner, a collection of parables and sayings, his second book in English.

  1923

  Publishes his magnum opus, The Prophet, in New York to instant success and fame; the title has never been out of print since. Mary Haskell moves to Georgia and marries.

  1926

  Publishes Sand and Foam in New York. Gibran begins to contribute articles to the quarterly journal "The New Orient," which took an international approach encouraging the East and West to meet.

  1928

  Publication of Jesus, Son of Man, which presents portraits of Jesus through the eyes of His contemporaries.

  1931

  The Earth Gods, a long prose poem, is published in March. Gibran dies on April 10th at a New York hospital. His body is sent back to Lebanon, where his coffin is carried in a long celebratory procession from Beirut to Besharri. The Mar Sarkis monastery in Besharri was purchased according to Gibran's wishes and he was eventually moved to his final resting-place there. His belongings, the books he read, and some of his works and illustrations were later shipped to provide a local collection in the monastery, which turned into the Gibran Museum.

  SELECTED QUOTES

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

  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.

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

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

  For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

  Love that is washed by tears will remain eternally pure and faithful.

  Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

  Some of our children are our justifications and some are but our regrets.

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

  Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

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

  Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

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

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

  The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

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

  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.

  As a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

  Do not limp before the lame, deeming it a kindness.

  One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

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

  Cast aside those who liken godliness to whimsy and who try to combine their greed for wealth with their desire for a happy afterlife.

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

  All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

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

  Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

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

  Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.

  Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

  To be able to look back upon one's life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

  He who listens to truth is not less than he who utters truth.

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

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

  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.

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

  To belittle, you have to be little.

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

  You have your ideology and I have mine.

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

  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.

  God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

  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.

  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. 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.

  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.

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

  The teacher gives not of his wisdom, but rather of his faith and lovingness.

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

  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.

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

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

  Your friend is your needs answered.

  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.

  In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.

  We were a silent, hidden thought in the folds of oblivion, and we have become a voice that causes the heavens to tremble.

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

  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.

  If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

  You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

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

  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.

  Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

  By losing your goal, you have lost your way.

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

  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.

  Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

  Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

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

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

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

  Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

  Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too self-ful to seek other than itself.

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

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

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

  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.

  My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.

  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.

  The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you, but 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.

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

  We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.

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

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

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

  Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

  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.

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

  Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

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

  Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love.

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

  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.

  In truth you owe naught to any man. You owe all to all men. What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

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

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

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

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

  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.

  All you have shall someday be given; therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.

  Oh, heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.

  Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

  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.

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

  One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.

  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.

  I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.

  Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

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

  Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

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

  The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.

  Remembrance is a form of meeting.

  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?

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

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

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

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

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

  A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish
him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland.

  The appearance of things change according to the emotions, and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

  The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Seek ye counsel of the aged for their eyes have looked on the faces of the years and their ears have hardened to the voices of Life. Even if their counsel is displeasing to you, pay heed to them.