Khalil Gibran > Quotes

“On Marriage

You were born together
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.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course."
As much as love allows for our growth, it also acts to prune us so that we grow straight and tall.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Fidatevi dei sogni, poiché in essi è nascosta la porta all’eternità.”
― Khalil Gibran, Il profeta - Il giardino del profeta

“Your other half is not the one you love
It is you in another time
yet in the same space
It is you when you are not”
― Khalil Gibran, Do Not Love Half Lovers

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.”
― Khalil Gibran

“But should my voice fade in your ears, and my love vanish in your memory, then I will come again, And with a richer heart and lips more yielding to the spirit will I speak.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Nie kochaj półmiłością
Nie gość półprzyjaciół
Nie oddawaj się dziełom na pół uzdolnionych
Nie żyj półżyciem
I nie umieraj półśmiercią
Chcesz milczeć, milcz
Chcesz mówić, mów, aż skończysz
Nie uciszaj się po to, żeby coś powiedzieć
I nie mów po to, by milczeć
Jeśli się zgadzasz, wyraź to dosadnie
Nie ukrywaj tego
Jeśli odmawiasz, odmów jasno,
dwuznaczna odmowa to nic więcej niż słaba zgoda
Nie zgadzaj się na półśrodki
Nie wierz półprawdom
Nie snuj półnadziei
I nie śnij półsnów
Pół napoju nie zgasi twojego pragnienia
Pół posiłku nie zaspokoi głodu
Jeśli przejdziesz pół drogi, donikąd nie dotrzesz
Pół pomysłu niczym nie zaowocuje
Twoja druga połówka to nie ten, kogo kochasz
To ty kiedy indziej, choć w tym samym miejscu
To ty, kiedy cię nie ma
Półżycie to życie, którego nie przeżyłeś
Słowo, którego nie wypowiedziałeś
Uśmiech, który odłożyłeś na potem
Miłość, której nie miałeś
Przyjaźń, której nie znałeś
To dążyć, lecz się nie zjawiać
Pracować i nie pracować
Uczestniczyć, będąc nieobecnym
To przez to dla najbliższych stajesz się kimś obcym,
a oni obcymi dla ciebie
Połowa to tylko chwila, gdy zrobić czegoś nie możesz,
ale ty możesz to zrobić, nie jesteś półistotą
Jesteś całością, istniejesz, by żyć całym życiem,
a nie połową życia.”
― Khalil Gibran

“The wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass; And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Humanity is a river of light running from ex-eternity to eternity.”
― Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam

“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“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,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with his own sacred tears.”
― Khalil Gibran

“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,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the
Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.”
― Khalil Gibran

“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
― Khalil Gibran

“Whenever you pass by the field where you have laid your ancestors look well there-upon, and you shall see yourselves and your children dancing hand in hand.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Porque el pensamiento es un pájaro del aire libre que en una jaula de palabras puede desplegar las alas, pero no volar.”
― Khalil Gibran, El Profeta

“Few of us are able to add fact to different fact and make a truth thereof.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Wanderer

“Heavy-laden is my soul with her own ripe fruit;
Heavy-laden is my soul with her fruit.
Who now will come and eat and be fulfilled?
My soul is overflowing with her wine.
Who now will pour and drink and be cooled of the desert heat?

Would that I were a tree flowerless and fruitless,
For the pain of abundance is more bitter than barrenness,
And the sorrow of the rich from whom no one will take
Is greater than the grief of the beggar to whom none would give.

Would that I were a well, dry and parched , and men throwing stones into me;
For this were better and easier to be borne than to be a source of living water
When men pass by and will not drink.

Would that I were a reed trodden under foot,
For that were better than to be a lyre of silvery strings
In a house whose lord has no fingers
And whose children are deaf.”
― Khalil Gibran

“Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
“Do not indulge in works of the half talented
Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished.....”
― Khalil Gibran

“Sarete davvero liberi non quando i vostri giorni saranno privi di affanni e le vostre notti saranno senza carenze e dolore,
Ma, piuttosto, quando queste cose cingeranno la vostra vita e tuttavia voi vi leverete al di sopra nudi e senza vincoli.”
― Khalil Gibran, Il profeta - Il giardino del profeta

“Maar als je in je angst slechts liefdes vrede en liefdes vreugde
zoekt,
Dan is het beter dat je je naaktheid bedekt en je terugtrekt
van liefdes dorsvloer,
Terug in de zouteloze wereld waar je zult lachen, maar nooit
uit volle borst,
En huilen, maar nooit al je tranen.
Liefde geeft niets, behalve zichzelf, en ze neemt niets behal-
ve van zichzelf.
Liefde wil niet bezitten en niet bezeten worden;
Want liefde is liefde genoeg.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Voi siete buoni in infiniti modi, e non siete cattivi quando non siete buoni, siete soltanto pigri e indolenti.”
― Khalil Gibran

“Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you.”
― Khalil Gibran

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”
― Khalil 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.”
― Khalil Gibran

“The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.”
― Khalil Gibran

“But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?
Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?
And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?
Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff?
Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.
Who knows but that which seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?
Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Broken Wings

“Love is a deadly poison injected by
black vipers, who writhe in the caves
of Hell. The Poison flows there,
spreads, and falls like dew.
Thirsty souls drink it.
And are intoxicated for a minute,
sober again for a year,
then dead for a century long.”
― Khalil Gibran, Love Letters in the Sand: The Love Poems of Khalil Gibran

“Love is trembling happiness”
― Khalil Gibran

“Les femmes ont ouvert les fenêtres de mes yeux et les portes de mon esprit. S’il n’y avait pas eu la femme-mère, la femme-sœur, la femme-amie, j’aurais dormi parmi ceux qui cherchent la tranquillité du monde en ronflant.”
― Khalil Gibran, Le Prophète