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.
— Khalil Gibran
The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.
Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.
Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.
Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
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.
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.
Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.
If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.
If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.
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.
Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
Love is trembling happiness.
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.
If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.
Love... it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.
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.
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.
March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.
Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.
No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.
Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
Your friend is your needs answered.
Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.
Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.
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.
And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.
