Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran

by Kahlil Gibran

  KG-P-37

  LIGHT

  The true light is that which emanates from within man, and reveals the secrets of the heart to the soul, making it happy and contented with life.

  SR-T-255

  LIMITATION

  The person who is limited in heart and thought is inclined to love that which is limited in life, and the weak-sighted cannot see more than one cubit ahead upon the path he treads, nor more than one cubit of the wall upon which he rests his shoulder.

  SH-T-129

  LONGING

  In the will of man there is a power of longing which turns the mist in ourselves into sun.

  SP-ST-86

  LOVE

  The power to

  Love is God’s greatest gift to man,

  For it never will be taken from the

  Blessed one who loves.

  SH-T-99

  Love lies in the soul alone,

  Not in the body, and like wine

  Should stimulate our better self

  To welcome gifts of Love Divine.

  P-61

  Man cannot reap love until after sad and revealing separation, and bitter patience, and desperate hardship.

  TL-T-115

  Yesterday I stood at the temple door interrogating the passersby about the mystery and merit of Love.

  And before me passed an old man with an emaciated and melancholy face, who sighed and said:

  “Love is a natural weakness bestowed upon us by the first man.”

  But a virile youth retorted:

  “Love joins our present with the past and the future.”

  Then a woman with a tragic face sighed and said:

  “Love is a deadly poison injected by black vipers, that crawl from the caves of hell. The poison seems fresh as dew and the thirsty soul eagerly drinks it; but after the first intoxication the drinker sickens and dies a slow death.”

  Then a beautiful, rosy-cheeked damsel smilingly said:

  “Love is a wine served by the brides of Dawn which strengthens strong souls and enables them to ascend to the stars.”

  After her a black-robed, bearded man, frowning, said:

  “Love is the blind ignorance with which youth begins and ends.”

  Another, smiling, declared:

  “Love is a divine knowledge that enables men to see as much as the gods.”

  Then said a blind man, feeling his way with a cane:

  “Love is a blinding mist that keeps the soul from discerning the secret of existence, so that the heart sees only trembling phantoms of desire among the hills, and hears only echoes of cries from voiceless valleys.”

  And a feeble ancient, dragging his feet like two rags, said, in quavering tones:

  “Love is the rest of the body in the quiet of the grave, the tranquility of the soul in the depth of Eternity.”

  And a five-year-old child, after him, said laughing:

  “Love is my father and mother, and no one knows Love save my father and mother.”

  And so, all who passed spoke of Love as the image of their hopes and frustrations, leaving it a mystery as before.

  TM-ST-88

  Those whom Love has not chosen as followers do not hear when Love calls.

  BW-ST-75

  Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of seasons.

  BW-ST-54

  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.

  BW-ST-35

  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.

  WM-ST-46

  Love that comes between the naivete and awakening of youth satisfies itself with possessing, and grows with embraces. But Love which is born in the firmament’s lap and has descended with the night’s secrets is not contented with anything but Eternity and immortality; it does not stand reverently before anything except deity.

  BW-ST-114

  If humanity were to

  Lead love’s cavalcade to a bed of

  Faithless motive, then love there

  Would decline to abide. Love is a

  Beautiful bird, begging capture,

  But refusing injury.

  T-369

  Love,

  When sought out, is an ailment

  Between the flesh and the bone,

  And only when youth has passed

  Does the pain bring rich and

  Sorrowful knowledge.

  T-369

  Darkness may hide the trees and the flowers from the eyes but it cannot hide love from the soul.

  S

  LUST

  Beauty reveals itself to us as she sits on the throne of glory; but we approach her in the name of Lust, snatch off her crown of purity, and pollute her garment with our evil-doing.

  WM-ST-46

  M

  MADNESS

  Madness is the first step towards unselfishness. Be mad and tell us what is behind the veil of “sanity.” The purpose of life is to bring us closer to those secrets, and madness is the only means.

  SP-ST-62

  MAIDEN

  There is no affection purer and more soothing to the spirit than the one hidden in the heart of a maiden who awakens suddenly and fills her own spirit with heavenly music that makes her days like poets’ dreams and her nights prophetic.

  SR-T-264

  MANKIND

  I love mankind and I love equally all

  Three human kinds … the one who

  Blasphemes life, the one who blesses

  It, and the one who meditates upon it.

  I love the first for his misery and

  The second for his generosity and the

  Third for his perception and peace.

  SH-T-101

  MARRIAGE

  Marriage is the union of two divinities that a third might be born on earth. It is the union of two souls in a strong love for the abolishment of separateness. It is that higher unity which fuses the separate unities within the two spirits. It is the golden ring in a chain whose beginning is a glance, and whose ending is Eternity. It is the pure rain that falls from an unblemished sky to fructify and bless the fields of divine Nature.

  WM-ST-50

  MERCHANT

  Are you a merchant, drawing advantage from the needs of the people, engrossing goods so as to resell them at an exorbitant price? If so, you are a reprobate; and it matters naught whether your home is a palace or a prison.

  Or are you an honest man, who enables farmer and weaver to exchange their products, who mediates between buyer and seller, and through his just ways profits both himself and others?

  If so, you are a righteous man; and it matters not whether you are praised or blamed.

  WM-ST-34

  MERCY

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

  SR-T-276

  MERRIMENT

  Life is not only a merriment;

  Life is desire and determination.

  MS-74

  MIDDLE EAST

  There are in the Middle East today two challenging ideas: old and new.

  The old ideas will vanish because they are weak and exhausted.

  There is in the Middle East an awakening that defies slumber. This awakening will conquer because the sun is its leader and the dawn is its army….

  There is on the horizon of the Middle East a new awakening; it is growing and expanding; it is reaching and engulfing all sensitive, intelligent souls; it is penetrating and gaining the sympathy of noble hearts.

  The Middle East, today, has two masters. One is deciding, ordering, being obeyed; but he is at the point of death.

  But the other one is silent in his conformity to law and order, calmly awaiting justice; he is a powerful giant who knows his own strength, confident in his existence and a believer in hi
s destiny.

  MS-60

  MIMIC

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

  WM-ST-63

  MODERN GENERATION

  This strange generation exists between sleeping and waking. It holds in its hands the soil of the past and the seeds of the future.

  BW-ST-84

  MODERN POETRY

  Oh spirits of the poets, who watch over us from the heaven of Eternity, we go to the altars you have adorned with the pearls of your thoughts and the gems of your souls because we are oppressed by the clang of steel and the clamor of factories. Therefore our poems are as heavy as freight trains and as annoying as steam whistles.

  And you, the real poets, forgive us. We belong in the New World where men run after worldly goods; and poetry, too, is a commodity today, and not a breath of immortality.

  TM-ST-83

  MODERN WOMAN

  Modern civilization has made woman a little wiser, but it has increased her suffering because of man’s covetousness. The woman of yesterday was a happy wife, but the woman of today is a miserable mistress. In the past she walked blindly in the light, but now she walks open-eyed in the dark. She was beautiful in her ignorance, virtuous in her simplicity, and strong in her weakness. Today she has become ugly in her ingenuity, superficial and heartless in her knowledge. Will the day come when beauty and knowledge, ingenuity and virtue, and weakness of body and strength of spirit will be united in a woman?

  BW-ST-83

  MODESTY

  To be modest in speaking truth is hypocrisy.

  TM-ST-95

  MONEY

  Money! The source of insincere love; the spring of false light and fortune; the well of poisoned water; the desperation of old age!

  TL-T-175

  Money is like a stringed instrument; he who does not know how to use it properly will hear only discordant music. Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and it enlivens the other who turns it upon his fellow men.

  TL-T-404

  MOTHER

  The mother is every thing—she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness. He who loses his mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards him constantly.

  Every thing in nature bespeaks the mother. The sun is the mother of the earth and gives it its nourishment of heat; it never leaves the universe at night until it has put the earth to sleep to the song of the sea and the hymn of the birds and brooks. And this earth is the mother of trees and flowers. It produces them, nurses them, and weans them. The trees and flowers become kind mothers of their great fruits and seeds. And the mother, the prototype of all existence, is the eternal spirit, full of beauty and love.

  BW-ST-92

  MUSIC

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

  WM-ST-58

  The moaning flute is more divine

  Than the golden cup of deep, red wine.

  T-368

  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.

  S

  N

  NATURE

  In the wild there is no Credo

  Nor a hideous disbelief;

  Song-birds never are assertive

  Of the Truth, the Bliss, or Grief.

  P-46

  When I began to draw and paint, I did not say to myself, “Behold Kahlil Gibran. There are ahead of you so many ways to art: The classic, the modern, the symbolistic, the impressionistic, and others. Choose for yourself one of them.” I did nothing of the sort. I simply found my pen and brush, quite of themselves, recording symbols of my thoughts, emotions, and fancies. Some think the business of art to be a mere imitation of nature. But Nature is far too great and too subtle to be successfully imitated. No artist can ever reproduce even the least of Nature’s surpassing creations and miracles. Besides, what profit is there in imitating Nature when she is so open and so accessible to all who see and hear? The business of art is rather to understand Nature and to reveal her meanings to those unable to understand. It is to convey the soul of a tree rather than to produce a fruitful likeness of the tree. It is to reveal the conscience of the sea, not to portray so many foaming waves or so much blue water. The mission of art is to bring out the unfamiliar from the most familiar.

  Pity the eye that sees no more in the sun than a stove to keep it warm and a torch to light its way between the home and the business office. That is a blind eye, even if capable of seeing a fly a mile away. Pity the ear that hears no more than so many notes in the song of the nightingale. It is a deaf ear, even if capable of hearing the crawling of ants in their subterranean labyrinths.

  KG-P-100

  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.

  WM-ST-47

  To Nature all are alive and all are

  Free. The earthly glory of man is an

  Empty dream, vanishing with the bubbles

  In the rocky stream.

  T-367

  NATURE AND MAN

  I heard the brook lamenting like a widow mourning her dead child and I asked, “Why do you weep, my pure brook?”

  And the brook replied, “Because I am compelled to go to the city where Man contemns me and spurns me for stronger drinks and makes of me a scavenger for his offal, pollutes my purity, and turns my goodness to filth.”

  And I heard the birds grieving, and I asked, “Why do you cry, my beautiful birds?” And one of them flew near, and perched at the tip of a branch and said, “The sons of Adam will soon come into this field with their deadly weapons and make war upon us as if we were their mortal enemies. We are now taking leave of one another, for we know not which of us will escape the wrath of Man. Death follows us wherever we go.”

  Now the sun rose from behind the mountain peaks, and gilded the treetops with coronals. I looked upon this beauty and asked myself, “Why must Man destroy what Nature has built?”

  WM-ST-83

  NEIGHBOR

  When you tell your trouble to your neighbor you present him with a part of your heart. If he possesses a great soul, he thanks you; if he possesses a small one, he belittles you.

  MS-71

  NEW YORK

  He who wishes to live in New York must be a sharp sword in a sheath of honey. The sword is to repel those who are desirous of killing time, and the honey is to satisfy their hunger.

  SP-ST-83

  NIGHTINGALE

  The nightingale does not make his nest in a cage lest slavery be the lot of its chicks.

  BW-ST-122

  O

  OLD AGE

  An old man likes to return in memory to the days of his youth like a stranger who longs to go back to his own country. He delights to tell stories of the past like a poet who takes pleasure in reciting his best poem. He lives spiritually in the past because the present passes swiftly, and the future seems to him an approach to the oblivion of the grave.

  BW-ST-24

  Many are the men who curse with venom the dead days of their youth; many are the women who execrate their wasted years with the fury of the lioness who has lost her cubs; and many are the youths and maidens who are using their hearts only to sheath the daggers of the bitter memories of the future, wounding themselves through ignorance with the sharp and poisoned arrows of seclusion from happiness.

  Old age is the snow of the earth; it must, through light and truth, give warmth to the seeds of youth below, protecting them and fulfilling their purpose.

  T-302

  ONENE
SS

  All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.

  SH-T-140

  OPPORTUNITY

  He who tries to seize an opportunity after it has passed him by is like one who sees it approach but will not go to meet it.

  WM-ST-56

  OPPRESSION

  Woe to the nation that receives her conquerors beating the drums. Woe to the nation that hates oppression in her sleep and accepts it in her awakening. Woe to the nation that raises her voice only behind a coffin and prides itself only in the cemetery. Woe to a nation that does not revolt until her neck is placed on the scaffold.

  MS-99

  ORIENT

  The people of the Orient demand that the writer be like a bee always making honey. They are gluttonous for honey and prefer it to all other food.

  The people of the Orient want their poet to burn himself as incense before their sultans. The Eastern skies have become sickly with incense yet the people of the Orient have had not enough….

  Numerous are the social healers in the Orient, and many are their patients who remain uncured but appear eased of their ills because they are under the effects of social narcotics. But these tranquilizers merely mask the symptoms.

  Such narcotics are distilled from many sources but the chief is the Oriental philosophy of submission to Destiny (the act of God).

  TM-ST-92

  P

  PACIFISM

  Beware of the leader who says, “Love of existence obliges us to deprive the people of their rights!” I say unto you but this: protecting others’ rights is the noblest and most beautiful human act; if my existence requires that I kill others, then death is more honourable to me, and if I cannot find someone to kill me for the protection of my honour, I will not hesitate to take my life by my own hands for the sake of Eternity before Eternity comes.