Khalil Gibran Life Quotations

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

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.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

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.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love.

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.

When life life does not find a singer to sing her heart, she produces a philosopher to speak her mind

The life of a flower is longing and fulfilment. A tear and a smile.

Spiritual awakening is the most essential thing in man's life, and it is the sole purpose of being. Is not civilization, in all its tragic forms, a supreme motive for spiritual awakening?

The subtlest beauties in our life are unseen and unheard.

Braving obstacles and hardships is nobler than retreat to tranquility. The butterfly that hovers around the lamp until it dies is more admirable than the mole that lives in a dark tunnel.

He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.

I am a poet who composes what life proses, and who proses what life composes.

And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep.

All men love you for themselves. I love you for yourself.

He who is more mindful of one, loses the love and the faith of both.

Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the goodness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he goes. He who does not see the kingdom of heaven in this life will never see it in the coming life. We came not into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life.

Seek ye counsel of the aged for their eyes have looked on the faces of the years and their ears have hardened to the voices of Life. Even if their counsel is displeasing to you, pay heed to them.

Life is the mistress to be wooed.

When you love you should not think you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love is a sacred mystery. To those who love, it remains forever wordless; But to those who do not love, it may be but a heartless jest.

My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me to love what the people abhor and to show good will toward the one they hate. It showed me that Love is a property not of the lover but of the beloved. Before my Soul taught me, Love was for me a delicate thread stretched between two adjacent pegs, but now it has been transformed into a halo; its first is its last, and its last is its first. It encompasses every being, slowly expanding to embrace all that ever will be.

Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry.

Man is like the foam of the sea, that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives blown away by Death.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

Said a skunk to a tube-rose, "See how swiftly I run, while you cannot walk nor even creep." Said the tube-rose to the skunk, "Oh, most noble swift runner, please run swiftly!"

Knowledge and understanding are life's faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown, and understanding your staff; and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasures.

No lower can a man descend than to interpret his dreams into gold and silver.

Desire is half of life, indifference is half of death.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of the seasons

God has placed in each soul an apostle to lead us upon the illumined path. Yet many seek life from without, unaware that is within them.

Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love; and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” “Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving

Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.

joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

I AM IGNORANT of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.