Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran

by Kahlil Gibran

  BW-ST-49

  IGNORANCE

  In the house of Ignorance there is no mirror in which to view your soul.

  SH-T-87

  During the ebb, I wrote a line upon the sand,

  Committing to it all that is in my soul and mind;

  I returned at the tide to read it and to ponder upon it,

  I found naught upon the seashore but my ignorance.

  MS-39

  ILLNESS

  I have found pleasure in being ill. This pleasure differs with its effect from any other pleasure. I have found a sort of tranquility that makes me love illness. The sick man is safe from people’s strife, demands, dates and appointments … I have found another kind of enjoyment through illness which is more important and unmeasurable. I have found that I am closer to abstract things in my sickness than in health.

  SP-ST-84

  I have pleasure in being ill. This pleasure differs with its effect from other pleasure. I have found a sort of tranquility that makes me love illness. The sick man is safe from people’s strife, demands, dates and appointments, excess of talking and ringing of telephones. … I have found that I am closer to abstract things in my sickness than in health. When I lay my head and close my eyes and lose myself to the world, I find myself flying like a bird over serene valleys and forests, wrapped in a gentle veil. I see myself close to those whom my heart has loved, calling and talking to them, but without anger and with the same feelings they feel and the same thoughts they think. They lay their hands now and then upon my forehead to bless me.

  SP-P-34

  ILLUSION

  Man’s will is a floating shadow

  In the mind he conceives,

  And the rights of mankind pass and

  Perish like the Autumn leaves.

  P-51

  IMAGINATION

  Thoughts have a higher dwelling place than the visible world, and its skies are not clouded by sensuality. Imagination finds a road to the realm of the gods, and there man can glimpse that which is to be after the soul’s liberation from the world of substance.

  TM-ST-74

  With one leap it [the imagination] would reach the core of life, divest it of all excrescences, then burn these excrescences and fling their ashes into the eyes of those who brought them into being. So must all imaginations be.

  KG-P-24

  IMITATION

  The people of the city feign great

  Wisdom and knowledge, but their

  Fancy remains false forever, for

  They are but experts of imitation.

  It gives them pride to calculate

  That a barter will bring no loss

  Or gain. The idiot imagines himself

  A king and no power can alter his

  Great thoughts and dreams. The

  Proud fool mistakes his mirror for

  The sky, and his shadow for a

  Moon that gleams high from the

  Heavens.

  T-368

  IMMORTALITY

  Death on earth, to son of earth

  Is final, but to him who is

  Ethereal, it is but the start

  Of triumph certain to be his.

  If one embraces dawn in dreams,

  He is immortal! Should he sleep

  His long night through, he surely fades

  Into a sea of slumber deep.

  For he who closely hugs the ground

  When wide awake will crawl ’til end.

  And death, like sea, who braves it light

  Will cross it. Weighted will descend.

  P-70

  If I did not covet immortality, I would never have learned the song which has been sung through all of time.

  Rather, I would have been a suicide, nothing remaining of me except my ashes hidden within the tomb….

  Life is a darkness which ends as in the sunburst of the day.

  The yearning of my heart tells me there is peace in the grave.

  If some fool tells you the soul perishes like the body and that which dies never returns, tell him the flower perishes but the seed remains and lies before us as the secret of life everlasting.

  MS-58

  IMPERMANENCE

  Mankind is like verses written

  Upon the surface of the rills.

  P-35

  INDICTMENT

  I will gladly exchange my outcries for cheerful laughter, speak eulogies instead of indictments, replace excess with moderation, provided you show me a just governor, a lawyer of integrity, a religious hierarch who practices what he preaches, a husband who looks upon his wife with the same eyes as he looks upon himself.

  TM-ST-96

  INFINITE

  We are naught but frail atoms in the heavens of the infinite; and we cannot but obey and surrender to the will of Providence.

  If we love, our love is neither from us, nor is it for us. If we rejoice, our joy is not in us, but in Life itself. If we suffer, our pain lies not in our wounds, but in the very heart of Nature.

  WM-ST-23

  INHERITANCE

  The man who acquires his wealth by inheritance builds his mansion with the weak poor’s money.

  SR-T-269

  INTOXICATION

  The human turns to drugging,

  As to nursing from the breast;

  Coming to the age of weaning

  Only when he’s put to rest.

  P-39

  ISLAND

  Life is an island in an ocean of loneliness, an island whose rocks are hopes, whose trees are dreams, whose flowers are solitude, and whose brooks are thirst.

  Your life, my fellow men, is an island separated from all other islands and regions. No matter how many are the ships that leave your shores for other climes, no matter how many are the fleets that touch your coast, you remain a solitary island, suffering the pangs of loneliness and yearning for happiness. You are unknown to your fellow men and far removed from their sympathy and understanding.

  WM-ST-41

  J

  JESUS

  Humanity looks upon Jesus the Nazarene as a poor-born Who suffered misery and humiliation with all of the weak. And He is pitied, for Humanity believes He was crucified painfully…. And all that Humanity offers to Him is crying and wailing and lamentation. For centuries Humanity has been worshipping weakness in the person of the Saviour.

  The Nazarene was not weak! He was strong and is strong! But the people refuse to heed the true meaning of strength.

  SH-T-154

  Jesus came not from the heart of the circle of Light to destroy the homes and build upon their ruins the convents and monasteries. He did not persuade the strong man to become a monk or a priest, but He came to send forth upon this earth a new spirit, with power to crumble the foundation of any monarchy built upon human bones and skulls…. He came to demolish the majestic palaces, constructed upon the graves of the weak, and crush the idols, erected upon the bodies of the poor. 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.

  SH-T-155

  Surely you have prayed enough to last you to the end of your days, and hence forth you shall not enter a church as a worshipper; for the Jesus you love so dearly is not found in churches. Many are the places of worship, but few indeed are those who worship in Spirit and in truth.

  KG-P-19

  JOURNALIST

  Are you a journalist who sells his principles in the markets of slaves and who fattens on gossip and misfortune and crime? If so, you are like a ravenous vulture preying upon rotting carrion.

  WM-ST-35

  JUDGMENT

  The learned man who has not judgment is like an unarmed soldier proceeding into battle. His wrath will poison the pure spring of the life of his community and he will be like the grain of aloes in a pitcher of pure water.

  WM-ST-54

  JUSTICE

 
Justice on earth would cause the Jinn

  To cry at misuse of the word,

  And were the dead to witness it,

  They’d mock at fairness in this world.

  Yea, death and prison we mete out

  To small offenders of the laws,

  While honor, wealth, and full respect

  On greater pirates we bestow.

  To steal a flower we call mean,

  To rob a field is chivalry;

  Who kills the body he must die,

  Who kills the spirit he goes free.

  P-47

  What justice does authority display when it kills the killer? When it imprisons the robber? When it descends on a neighbouring country and slays its people? What does justice think of the authority under which a killer punishes the one who kills, and a thief sentences the one who steals?

  TL-T-9

  When a man kills another man, the people say he is a murderer, but when the Emir kills him, the Emir is just. When a man robs a monastery, they say he is a thief, but when the Emir robs him of his life, the Emir is honourable. When a woman betrays her husband, they say she is an adulteress, but when the Emir makes her walk naked in the streets and stones her later, the Emir is noble. Shedding of blood is forbidden, but who made it lawful for the Emir? Stealing one’s money is a crime, but taking away one’s life is a noble act. Betrayal of a husband may be an ugly deed, but stoning of living souls is a beautiful sight. Shall we meet evil with evil and say this is the Law? Shall we fight corruption with greater corruption and say this is the Rule? Shall we conquer crimes with more crimes and say this is Justice?

  SR-T-315

  The gifts which derive from justice are greater than those that spring from charity.

  WM-ST-65

  K

  KIN

  He who understands you is greater kin to you than your own brother. For even your own kindred may neither understand you nor know your true worth.

  WM-ST-62

  KINDNESS

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

  SR-T-262

  The kindness of the people is but an

  Empty shell containing no gem or

  Precious pearl. With two hearts do

  People live; a small one of deep

  Softness, the other of steel. And

  Kindness is too often a shield,

  And generosity too often a sword.

  T-367

  KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

  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. We came not into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life.

  SR-T-256

  KINGDOMS

  Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities and belong to no settlement. The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.

  Men are weak, and it is sad that they divide among themselves. The world is narrow and it is unwise to cleave it into kingdoms, empires, and provinces.

  TL-T-4

  KNOWLEDGE

  Learning follows various roads.

  We note the start but not the end.

  For Time and Fate must rule the course,

  While we see not beyond the bend.

  The best of knowledge is a dream

  The gainer holds steadfast, uncowed

  By ridicule, and moves serene,

  Despised and lowly in the crowd.

  P-52

  L

  LAW

  What is Law? Who saw it coming with the sun from the depths of heaven? What human saw the heart of God and found its will or purpose? In what century did the angels walk among the people and preach to them, saying, “Forbid the weak from enjoying life, and kill the outlaws with the sharp edge of the sword, and step upon the sinners with iron feet”?

  SR-T-316

  Are you a soldier compelled by the harsh law of man to forsake wife and children, and go forth into the field of battle for the sake of Greed, which your leaders mis-call Duty?

  Are you a prisoner, pent up in a dark dungeon for some petty offense and condemned by those who seek to reform man by corrupting him?

  Are you a young woman on whom God has bestowed beauty, but who has fallen prey to the base lust of the rich, who deceived you and bought your body but not your heart, and abandoned you to misery and distress?

  If you are one of these, you are a martyr to man’s law. You are wretched, and your wretchedness is the fruit of the iniquity of the strong and the injustice of the tyrant, the brutality of the rich, and the selfishness of the lewd and the covetous.

  WM-ST-44

  Man is weak by his own hand, for he

  Has refashioned God’s law into his own

  Confining manner of life, chaining

  Himself with the coarse irons of the

  Rules of society which he desired; and

  He is steadfast in refusing to be aware

  Of the great tragedy he has cast upon

  Himself and his children and their sons.

  Man has erected on this earth a prison

  Of quarrels from which he cannot now

  Escape, and misery is his voluntary lot.

  T-366

  LAWS

  People are saying that I am the enemy of just laws, of family ties and old tradition. Those people are telling the truth. I do not love man-made laws … I love the sacred and spiritual kindness which should be the source of every law upon the earth, for kindness is the shadow of God in man.

  MS-V

  Human society has yielded for seventy centuries to corrupted laws until it cannot understand the meaning of superior and eternal laws…. Spiritual disease is inherited from one generation to another until it becomes a part of the people, who look upon it, not as a disease, but as a natural gift, showered by God on Adam. If these people found someone free from the germs of this disease, they would think of him with shame and disgrace.

  SP-P-31

  LEARNING

  Learning nourishes the seed but it gives you no seed of its own.

  MS-72

  Reason and learning are like body and soul. Without the body, the soul is nothing but empty wind. Without the soul, the body is but a senseless frame.

  Reason without learning is like the untilled soil, or like the human body that lacks nourishment.

  WM-ST-55

  Learning is the only wealth tyrants cannot despoil. Only death can dim the lamp of knowledge that is within you. The true wealth of a nation lies not in its gold or silver but in its learning, wisdom, and in the uprightness of its sons.

  WM-ST-61

  LIARS

  There are among the people murderers who have never committed murder, thieves who have never stolen and liars who have spoken nothing but the truth.

  MS-72

  LIBERTY

  I walked lonely in the Valley of the Shadow of Life, where the past attempts to conceal itself in guilt, and the soul of the future folds and rests itself too long. There, at the edge of Blood and Tears River, which crawled like a poisonous viper and twisted like a criminal’s dreams, I listened to the frightened whisper of the ghosts of slaves, and gazed at nothingness.

  When midnight came and the spirits emerged from hidden places, I saw a cadaverous, dying spectre fall to her knees, gazing at the moon. I approached her, asking, “What is your name?”

  “My name is Liberty,” replied this ghastly shadow of a corpse.

  And I inquired, “Where are your children?”

  And Liberty, tearful and weak,
gasped, “One died crucified, another died mad, and the third one is not yet born.”

  She limped away and spoke further, but the mist in my eyes and cries of my heart prevented sight or hearing.

  SH-T-66

  Everything on earth lives according to the law of nature, and from that law emerges the glory and joy of liberty; but man is denied this fortune, because he set for the God-given soul a limited and earthly law of his own. He made for himself strict rules. Man built a narrow and painful prison in which he secluded his affections and desires. He dug out a deep grave in which he buried his heart and its purpose. If an individual, through the dictates of his soul, declares his withdrawal from society and violates the law, his fellowmen will say he is a rebel worthy of exile, or an infamous creature worthy only of execution. Will man remain a slave of self-confinement until the end of the world? Or will he be freed by the passing of time and live in the Spirit for the Spirit? Will man insist upon staring downward and backward at the earth? Or will he turn his eyes toward the sun so he will not see the shadow of his body amongst the skulls and thorns?

  SR-T-228

  LIFE

  Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.

  SH-T-144

  Life is a woman bathing in the tears of her lovers and anointing herself with the blood of her victims. Her raiments are white days, lined with the darkness of night. She takes the human heart to lover, but denies herself in marriage.

  Life is an enchantress

  Who seduces us with her beauty–

  But he who knows her wiles

  Will flee her enchantments.

  WM-ST-85

  How often I talked with Harvard professors, yet felt as if I were talking to a professor from Al-Azhar! How often I have conversed with some Bostonian ladies and heard them say things I used to hear from simple and ignorant old women in Syria! Life is one, Mikhail; it manifests itself in the villages of Lebanon as in Boston, New York, and San Francisco.