| Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran |
| Which one of us listens to the hymn of the brook when the tempest speaks.
Hard is the life for him who desires death but lives on for the sake of his beloved ones. As between the soul and the body there is a bond, so are the body and its envirement linked together. Be not contented with little; he who brings to the springs of life an empty jar will return with two full ones. He who looks upon us through the eyes of God will see our naked and essential reality. God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them. A poet is he who makes you feel, after reading his poem, that his best verses have not yet been composed. The tyrant calls for sweet wine from sour grapes. Who among men can stroll on the bottom of the sea as if promenading in a garden? Do you believe you can comprehend the substances by inquiring about the purposes? Can you tell the flavor of the wine by looking at the wine jug? From my obscurity came forth a light and illuminated my path. Our souls traverse spaces in Life which are not measurable by Time, that invention of man. He who reveals to himself what his conscience commits a sin. And he also is a sinner who denies himself what his conscience has revealed. Poetry is the secret of the soul; why bable it away in words? Poetry is the understanding of the whole. How can you communicate it to him who understands but the part? Poetry is a flame in the heart, but rhetoric is flakes of snow. How can flame and snow be joined together? How gravely the glutton counsels the famished to bear the pangs of hunger. Representative governments were, in the past, the fruits of revolutions; today they are economic consequences. A feeble nation weakens its strong ones and strengthens the weak ones of a powerful nation. The secret in singing is found between the vibrations in the singer's voice and the throb in the hearer's heart. Love is a trembling happiness. A singer cannot delight you with his singing unless he himself delights to sing. You progress not through inmproving what has been done, but reaching toward what has yet to be done. The truth that needs proof is only half true. Keep me from the wisdom that does not weep, and the philosophy that does not laugh, and the pride that does not bow before a child. Among the people there are killers who have not yet shed blood, and thieves who have stolen nothing and liars who have so far told the truth. He is short-sighted who looks only on the path he treads and the wall on which he leans. Examine your yesterday's ledger and you will find that you are still indebted to people and to life. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair; but manifestations of strength and resolution. Proverty may veil arrogance, and the pain of calamity may seek the mask of pretense. The hungry savage picks a fruit from the tree and eats it. The hungry citizen in civilized society buys a fruit from the one who bought it from another who bought it from him who picked it from the tree. When I planted my pain in the field of patience it bore fruit of happiness. Art is a step in the known toward the unknown. Education sows not seeds in you, but makes your seeds grow. On the scholar who was made of thought and affection, speech was bestowed. On the researcher who was made of speech, a little thought and affection was bestowed. Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation. The millstone may break down but the river continues its course to the sea. Inspiration is in seeing a part of the whole with the part of the whole in you. Contradiction is the lowest form of intelligence. The believer is led to doubt justice when he sees the trick of the fox triumph over the justice of the lion. Fear of the devil is one way of doubting God. Slaves are the fault of the kings. The difficulty we meet with in reaching our goal is the shortest path to it. In the magnifying glass of man's eye the world looks greater than it is. |