Quotes by Kahlil Gibran

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

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

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

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'

The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

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

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

In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.
('Narcotics and Dissecting Knives,' Thoughts and Meditations, 1960)

It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.
('On Giving,' The Prophet, 1923)

Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
(Essay on Robert Frost, quoted in N. Y.. Times: Obit-Editorial, April 1982)

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
(The Prophet)