Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931
Author of The Prophet
Poet, philosopher, and artist, was born in Lebanon, a land that has produced many prophets.
The millions of Arabic-speaking peoples familiar with his writings in that language consider him the genius of his age.
But he was a man whose fame and influence spread far beyond the Near East. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages.
His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake.
In the United States, which he made his home during the last twenty years of his life, he began to write in English.
The Prophet and his other books of poetry, illustrated with his mystical drawings, are known and loved by innumerable Americans who find in them an expression of the deepest impulses of man's heart and mind.
The above is from The Prophet's dust jacket, published by Knopf, NY
 
I discovered the secret of the sea in meditation upon the dewdrop.
Where can I find a man governed by reason instead of habits and urges?
As one's gifts increase, his friends decrease.
If you are poor, shun association with him who measures men with the yardstick of riches.
Of Life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a labor's hand.
Thrift is being generous, to all except the misers.
No lower can a man descend than to interpret his dreams into gold and silver.
Someone said to a stubborn prattler, 'Your conversation soothes and cures the ailing heart.' Whereat he hushed and claimed to be a medical doctor.
How hard is the life of him who asks for love and receives passion!
To be closer to God, be closer to people.
Marriage is either death or life; there is no twixt and between.
It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body.
Some silky faces are lined with coarse cloth.
Some think I wink at them when I shut my eyes to avoid their sight.
My proof convinces the ignorant, and the wise man's proof convinces me. But he whose reasoning falls between wisdon and ignorance, I neither can convince him, nor can he convince me.
Some souls are like sponges. You cannot squeeze anything out of them except what they have sucked from you.
If there were two men alike, the world would not be big enough to contain them.
He brings disaster upon his nation who never sows a seed, or lays a brick, or weaves a garment, but makes politics his occupation.
By adornment one acknowledges his ugliness.
I have yet to meet an ignorant man whose roots are not embedded in my soul.
Truth is the daughter of Inspiration; analysis and debate keep the people away from Truth.
He who forgives you for a sin you have not committed forgives himself for his own crime.
Ambition is a sort of work.
The partition between the sage and the fool is more slender than the spider web.
Some seek pleasure in pain; and some cannot cleanse themselves except with filth.
The fear of hell is hell itself, and the longing for paradise is paradise itself.
We must not forget that there are still cave dwellers; the caves are our hearts.
We may change with the seasons; but the seasons will not change us.
If you choose between two evils, let your choice fall on the obvious rather than the hidden, even though the first appears greater than the second.
Does the song of the sea end at the shore or in the hearts of those who listen?
The rich claim kinship with those of noble birth; and the nobly-born seek marriages among the rich; and each despises the other.
Most of us hover dubiously between mute rebellion and prattling submission.
The ill-intentioned always fall short of achieving their purpose.
The supreme state of the soul is to obey even that against which the mind rebels. And the lowest state of the mind is to revolt against that which the soul obeys.
The spiritual man is he who has experienced all earthly things and is in revolt against them.
Oh, heart, if the ignorant say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower perishes, but the seeds remain. This is the law of God.
If you wish to see the valleys, climb to the mountain top; if you desire to see the mountain top, rise into the cloud; but if you seek to understand the cloud, close your eyes and think.
Listen to the woman when she looks at you, but not when she talks to you.
 
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