Beauty

Giving

Love

Marriage

Death

Kahlil Gibran's Quotes
(excerpts from the book The Prophet)

- about Beauty :

It is not the image you would see
nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your
eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark,
nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of
angels for ever in flight.

- about Giving :

You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

- about Work :

You work that you may keep pace with the earth
and the soul of the earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the
seasons, and to step out of life's procession that
maries in majesty and proud submission towards
the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart
he whispering of the hours turns to music.

Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent,
when all else sings together in unison?

- about Friendship :

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be
laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its
morning and is refreshed.

- about Love :

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.

- about Marriage :

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.

- about 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.

- about Death :

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind
and to melt into the sun?

And what is it to cease breathing but to free the
breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and
expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence
shall you indeed sing.

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

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then
shall you truly dance.




Gibran's painting images courtesy of RedFrog - Poems from the Planet Earth
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