KHALIL GIBRAN QUOTES

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. 
― Kahlil Gibran

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, 
never an opportunity.
-Khalil Gibran

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

Love descends upon our souls by the will of God 
and not by the demand or the plea of the individual. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Spirits Rebellious

He who seeks ecstasy in love should not complain of suffering. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Visions of the Prophet

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. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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. 
― Kahlil Gibran

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. 
― Kahlil Gibran

You may forget with whom you laughed, 
but you will never forget with whom you wept. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

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. 
― Kahlil Gibran

Only love and death, are capable of changing everything. 
― Kahlil Gibran

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore. 
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. 
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. 
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. 
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. 
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. 
Sing and dance together and be joyous, 
but let each one of you be alone, 
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. 
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. 
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. 
And stand together yet not too near together: 
For the pillars of the temple stand apart, 
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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.
Love that is washed by tears
will remain eternally pure and faithful. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Love Letters in the Sand: The Love Poems of Khalil Gibran

When you are joyous, 
look deep into your heart and you shall find it 
is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
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. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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

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

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

The feelings we live through
in love and in loneliness
are simply, for us,
what high tide
and low tide are to the sea. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Love Letters in the Sand: The Love Poems of Khalil Gibran

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

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

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. 
― Kahlil Gibran

Men who do not forgive women their little faults 
will never enjoy their great virtues. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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

You are far, far greater than you know - 
and all is well. 
― Kahlil Gibran

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

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, 
and sharing of pleasures. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Listen to the women when she looks at you, 
not when she talks to you. 
― Kahlil Gibran

That deepest thing, that recognition, that knowledge, that sense of kinship 
began the first time I saw you,and it is the same now - 
only a thousand times deeper and tenderer. 
I shall love you to eternity. 
I loved you long before we met in this flesh. 
I knew that when I first saw you. 
It was destiny. 
We are together like this and nothing can shake us apart.
― Kahlil Gibran

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

When you reach the end of what you should know, 
you will be at the beginning of what you should sense. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

It is well to give when asked, 
but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; 
and to the open-handed the search for 
one who shall receive is joy greater than giving. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

And God said Love Your Enemy, 
and I obeyed him and loved myself.
― Kahlil Gibran, The Broken Wings

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

Life unfolds itself in mysteries ways. 
― Kahlil Gibran

God has created several doors which open onto truth. 
He opens them to all those who knock on them with the hand of faith.  
― Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children. 
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. 
They come through you but not from you, 
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. 
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, 
For they have their own thoughts. 
You may house their bodies but not their souls, 
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, 
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. 
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 are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. 
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, 
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. 
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. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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

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

But you who walk facing the sun, 
what images drawn on the earth can hold you? 
― Kahlil Gibran

I came here to be for all and with all,
and what I do today in my solitude
will be echoed tomorrow by the multitude.

What I say now with one heart
will be said tomorrow by thousands of hearts... 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet and Other Writings

I abstain from the people who consider 
insolence bravery and tenderness cowardice. 
And I abstain from those who consider 
chatter wisdom and silence ignorance. 
― Kahlil Gibran, Mirrors of the Soul

Love gives nothing but itself, 
and takes nothing but from itself. 
Love does not possess, nor would it be possessed. 
And do not think that you can direct the course of love, for love, 
if it finds you worthy, directs your course. 
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Your friend is your needs answered. 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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

What is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, 
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, 
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, 
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
Work is love made visible.
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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

Women opened the windows of my eyes and the doors of my spirit. Had it not been for the woman-mother, the woman-sister, and the woman-friend, I would have been sleeping among those who seek the tranquility of the world with their snoring.
-Khalil Gibran

The mother is everything-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.
-Khalil Gibran

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
-Khalil Gibran

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.
-Khalil Gibran

Time is the cruelest teacher; first she gives the test, then teaches the lesson.
-Khalil Gibran


Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
-Khalil Gibran

The Prophet

On Love
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

On Marriage
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. 

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

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, 
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, 
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, 
but seek not to make them like you.

On Giving
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
There are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

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

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

On Work
You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that 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;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

Work is love made visible.

On Houses
Your house is your larger body.

On Buying and Selling
And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, buy of their gifts also.

On Crime and Punishment
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.
And 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.

On Freedom
You can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.
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.

On Pain
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen

On Talking
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.
Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;

For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered


On Self-Knowledge
Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."

On Teaching
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.


And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.

On Time
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.

And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

On Good and Evil
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech.
You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"

For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"

On Prayer
For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?
Let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

"Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

It is thy desire in us that desireth.
It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.
We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

On Pleasure
Your body is the harp of your soul,

And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.

On Beauty
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.

On Religion
Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.

On Death

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

- The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

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