Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931,) was a Lebanese-American poet, artist, and writer. His most notable work The Prophet has inspired song lyrics and political speeches, and have been recited at weddings and funerals all around the world.
Gibran’s writings in both Arabic and English are deeply romantic, displaying his religious and mystical nature. Political leaders considered his thoughts poisonous to youth. One of his books, Al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida (1908; Rebellious Spirits,) was burnt in the Beirut’s souks shortly after it was published.
Gibran was also a painter schooled in the symbolist tradition in Paris in 1908. He mixed with the intellectual elite of his time, including figures such as W. B. Yeats, Carl Jung, and Auguste Rodin. He painted over 700 pictures, watercolors, and drawings.
By the 1930s, Gibran had become a prominent and charismatic figure within the Lebanese community and New York literary circles. Much of his success is attributable to Mary Haskell, a progressive Boston schoolteacher who became his sponsor, confidante, and editor. Their affiliation developed into a love affair; though Gibran proposed to her twice, they never married.
Gibran is best known for The Prophet (1923.) Translated into over 50 languages, it has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. The book’s 26 prose poems are presented as sermons by a fictional wise man called Al Mustapha. On the verge of setting sail for his homeland after 12 years in exile, the people of the island that was his home ask him to share his wisdom on the big questions of life: love, marriage, family, children, work, and death.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Kahlil Gibran
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Perception, Health, Positive Attitudes, Choice, Optimism, Attitude, Sorrow
I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Kindness, Silence, Learning
Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of seasons.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Love
Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Time
Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, we all have sorrow, but if we are wise we know there is always tomorrow.
—Kahlil Gibran
All you have shall some day be given; therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.
—Kahlil Gibran
Wisdom is not in words; Wisdom is meaning within words.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: One liners, Wisdom, Words
An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Truth
Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Knowledge
Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.
—Kahlil Gibran
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Progress
Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Wealth, Poverty
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
—Kahlil Gibran
There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Space
Every man is two men; one is awake in the darkness, the other asleep in the light.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Self-Discovery
And think not you can guide the course of love. For love, if it finds you worthy, shall guide your course.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Love
They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Time Management, Money
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Opportunity, Friendship
A singer cannot delight you with his singing unless he himself delights to sing.
—Kahlil Gibran
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Helping
Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: The Mind, Difficulties, Adversity
The very strength that protects the heart from injury is the strength that prevents the heart from enlarging to its intended greatness within. The song of the voice is sweet, but the song of the heart is the pure voice of heaven.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Heaven
To belittle is to be little.
—Kahlil Gibran
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
—Kahlil Gibran
Perhaps time’s definition of coal is the diamond.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: One liners
When you give of your possessions, you give but little; it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Charity, Self-Discovery, Helpfulness, Kindness, Service, Helping, Giving
If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
—Kahlil Gibran
Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Blessings, Contentment, Gratitude, Happiness
Say not, ‘I have found THE truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found A truth.’.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Truth
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him, you will always remember.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Forgiveness
The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather what he does not say.
—Kahlil Gibran
Topics: Understanding, Reality
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Henry David Thoreau American Philosopher
John Cage American Composer
Catherine of Siena Italian Mystic
Ralph Waldo Emerson American Philosopher
Pythagoras Greek Philosopher
Johann Gottfried Herder German Poet, Literary Critic
Alfred Korzybski Polish-American Philosopher
William James American Philosopher
Eric Hoffer American Philosopher
John Dewey American Philosopher