Quotes of Gibran Khalil Gibran (A->F)

AMBITION

What good is there, pray thee tellme,
Injostling thorugh the crowd inlife,
'Mid the argumental tumult,
Protestation, and endless strife;
Mole-like burrowing in darkness,
Grasping for the spider's thread,
Always thwarted in ambition, Until the living join the dead?

APPEARANCE

The appearnace of things changes according to the emotion, and thus we see magic andbeauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

The purpose of the spirit in the
Heart is concealed, and by outer
Appearance cannot be judged.

BEAUTY

Beauty is that whcih attracts your soul, and that which loves togive and not to receive. When you meet beauty, you feel thatthe hands deep witin your inner self are stretched forth to bring her into the domain of your heart. It is a magnificencce combined of sorrow and joy; it is the Unseen which you see, and the Vague which you understand, and the MUte which you hear- it is the Holy of Holies that begins in yourself and ends vastly beyond your earthly imagination. TL-T-407


Are you troubled by the many faiths that Mankind professes? Are you lost in the valley of conflicting beliefs? Do you think that the freedom of heresy is less burdensome than the yoke of submission, and the liberty of dissent safer than the stronghold of acquiescence?

If such be the case, then make Beauty your religion, and worship her as your godhead; for she is the visible, manifest and prfect handiwork of God. Cast off those who have toyed with godliness as if it were a sham, joining together greed and arrogrance; but believe instead in the divinity of beauty that is at once the beginning of your worship of Life, and the source of your hunger for Happiness.

Do penance before Beauty, and atone for your sins, for Beauty brings your heart closer to the throne of woman, who is the mirror of your affections and the teacher of your heart in the ways of Nature, which is your life's home.WM-ST-33


Only our spirits can understand beauty, or live and grow with it. It puzzles our minds; we are unable to describe it in words; it is a sensation that our eyes cannot see, derived from both the one who observes and the one who is looked upon. Real beauty is a ray which emanates from teh holy of holies of the spirit, and illuminates the body, as life comes from the depths of the earth and gives color and scent to a flower. BW-ST-34.


beauty is that harmony between joy and sorrow which begins in our holy of holies and ends beyond the scope of our imagination. KG-P-93


Beauty si not in the face;
Beauty is a light in the heart.MS-75

FATE

Circumstances drive us on
In narrow paths by Kismet hewn.
For Fate has ways we cannot change,
While weakness preys upon our Will;
We bolster with excuse the self,
And help that Fate ourselves to kill.P-74

Life takes us up and bears us from one place to another; Fate moves us from one point to another. And we, caught up between these twain, hear dreadful voices and see only that which stands as a hindrance and obstacle in our path. WM-ST-46



FIRST LOVE

Every young man remembers his first lvoe and tries to recapture that strange hour, the memory of which changes his deepest feeling and makes him so happy in spiet of all the bitterness of its mystery. BW-ST-12


FLOWERS

The flowers of the field are the children of sun's affection and nature's love; and thechildren of men are the flowers of love and compassion.BW-ST-122



FORBIDDEN

When you behold a man turning aside from
Things forbidden that bring
Abysmal crime to self, look Upon him with eyes of love, for
He is a preserver of God in him.T-372

FREEDOM

I love Freedom, and my love for true
Freedom grew with my growing knowledge
Of the people's surrender to slavery
And oppression and tyranny, and of
Their submission to the horrible idols
Erected by the past ages and polished
By the parched lips of the slaves.
But I lvoe those slaves with my love
For freedom, for they blindly kissed
The jaws of ferocious beasts in calm
And blissful unawareness, feeling not
The venom of the smiling viper, and
Unknowingly digging their graves with
Their own fingers.SH-T-100

Dying for Freedom is nobleer than living in
The shadow ofweak submission, for
He who embraces death with the sword
Of Truth in his hand will eternalizse
With the Eternity of Truth, for Life
Is weaker than Death and Death is
Weaker than Truth.SHT-342


The free on earth builds of his strife
A prison for his own duress,
When he is freed from his own kin,
Is slave to thought and love's caress.


Life without Freedom is like a body without a soul, and Freedom without Thought is like a confused spirit... Life, Freedom and Thought are three-in-one, and are everlasting and never pass away. TM-ST-62


Freedom bids us to her table where we may partake of her savory food and rich wine; but when we sit down at her board, we eat ravenously and glut ourselves.WM-ST-47


You may chain my hands and shackle my feet; you may even throw me into a dark prison, but you shall not enslave my thinking because it is free.S


FRIENDSHIP

Friendship with the ignorant is as foolish as arguing with a drunkard.WM-ST-62