Kahlil Gibran Quotes

277 Sourced Quotes

A scientist without imagination is a butcher with dull knives and out-worn scales.

Kahlil Gibran
A pearl is a temple built by pain around a grain of sand.

Kahlil Gibran
He alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Kahlil Gibran
I am one of those who believe that spiritual progress is a rule of human life, but the approach to perfection is slow and painful. If a woman elevates herself in one respect and is retarded in another, it is because the rough trail that leads to the mountain peak is not free of ambushes of thieves and lairs of wolves.

Kahlil Gibran
Unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

Kahlil Gibran
Perhaps time's definition of coal is the diamond.

Kahlil Gibran
Perhaps the sea's definition of a shell is the pearl.

Kahlil Gibran
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

Kahlil Gibran
Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness, nor regret having been deaf. For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things. And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light.

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

Kahlil Gibran
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

Kahlil Gibran
Cover me with soft earth, and let each handful be mixed With seeds ofjasmine, lilies, and myrtle; and when they Grow above me and thrive on my body's element they will Breathe the fragrance of my heart into space.

Kahlil Gibran
Keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life.

Kahlil Gibran
You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

Kahlil Gibran
Let ignorance reproduce itself until it is weary of its own offspring.

Kahlil Gibran
Beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

Kahlil Gibran
If [the teacher] 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.

Kahlil Gibran
Strange that creatures without backbones have the hardest shells.

Kahlil Gibran
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Kahlil Gibran
Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end.

Kahlil Gibran
If aught I have said is truth, that truth shall reveal itself in a clearer voice, and in words more kin to your thoughts.

Kahlil Gibran
You hate Jesus because someone from the North Country said He was the Son of God. But you hate one another because each of you deems himself too great to be the brother of the next man.

Kahlil Gibran
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born.
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

Kahlil Gibran
In the depths of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Kahlil Gibran
Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation.

Kahlil Gibran
We stood up and bade each other farewell, but love and despair stood between us like two ghosts, one stretching his wings with his fingers over our throats, one weeping and the other laughing hideously. As I took Selma's hand and put it to my lips, she came close to me and placed a kiss on my forehead, then dropped on the wooden bench. She shut her eyes and whispered softly, "Oh, Lord God, have mercy on me and mend my broken wings!

Kahlil Gibran
The thirst of soul is sweeter than the wine of material things, and the fear of spirit is dearer than the security of the body.

Kahlil 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.
I would not have thee believe in what I say nor trust in what I do — for my words are naught but thy own thoughts in sound and my deeds thy own hopes in action.

Kahlil Gibran
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.

Kahlil Gibran
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have found the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Kahlil Gibran