Khalil Gibran was known as an influencer who was a prolific writer, poet, activist, and visual artist. He always denied being a philosopher and was influenced by many religions like Christianity, Islam, Theosophy, and Sufi mysticism.
All the Khalil Gibran quotes are related to the personal experience that he suffered or lived from his childhood days to the spiritual path of Sufi mysticism. He managed to include every information gained in the quotes, writings, poems, and paintings.
Table of Contents
Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran or Jibran Khalil Jibran was born on January 6, 1883, and died in 1931, April 10. He is usually known as Khalil Gibran the Lebanese-American writer, poet, visual artist, and philosopher.
The book written by Khalil Gibran “The Prophet,” was published in 1923 in the United States. It has since been the best-selling book translated into more than 100 languages.
Gibran had a troubled childhood as they migrated to the United States with his mother and three siblings in 1985. They faced many difficulties as they were the migrated family. Gibran’s mother worked as a seamstress and a peddler selling door-to-door goods.
In 1909 Gibran left the studio of Pierre Marcel-Beronneau and started drawing pencil portraits featuring famous men and women artists of the current times which was later named as “Temple Of Art.”
Gibran was also involved in The Golden Links Society-the Syrian International Organization in 1911. By 1913 he already made a reputation by publishing Broken Wing and writing for Arabick magazines like Al-Funoon.
After 1918 most of his works were published in English like The Madman in 1918, followed by Twenty Drawing. In 1920 he re-created the Arabic language New York Pen League which was a literary movement started by Arabic-speaking writers who migrated to America from Ottoman in the 20th century.
Khalil Gibran Quotes
Khalil Gibran was a talented writer with excellent wordplay. The teacher in his school recognized his talent and introduced him to the photographer and publisher F Holland Day.
His many plays in English and Arabic were published later between 1973-1993. Here are some of the amazing Khalil Gibran quotes.
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Wisdom
1. “Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.”
2. “Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.”
3. “Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.”
4. “Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.”
5. “A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.”
6. “Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.”
7. “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.”
8. “Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”
9. “All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.”
10. “To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.”
11. “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.”
12. “If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Beauty
13. “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.”
14. “Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.”
15. “Your body is the harp of your soul and it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.”
16. “Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.”
17. “Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.”
18. “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”
19. “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.”
20. “We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.”
21. When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Life
22. “Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
23. “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.”
24. “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.”
25. “Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you you’re all.”
26. “In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
27. “Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”
28. “There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.”
29. “Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.”
30. “Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Motivation
31. “Rest in reason. Move in Passion.”
32. “Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.”
33. “I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.”
34. “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”
35. “Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.”
36. “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.”
37. “A man’s true wealth is the good he does in the world.”
38. “Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.”
39. “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.”
40. “All things in this vast universe exist in you, with you, and for you.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Realization
41. “All that spirits desire, spirits attain.”
42. “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
43. “No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.”
44. “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.”
45. “Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.”
46. “I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”
47. “We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.”
48. “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
Also Read Eckhart Tolle Quotes
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Love
These are some of the deep and ecstatic romantic love quotes from Khalil Gibran.
49. “When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.”
50. “Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.”
51. “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
52. “Love… it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.”
53. “Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
54. “But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”
55. “It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone… but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.”
56. “Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost.”
57. “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Time
58. “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.”
59. “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.”
60. “Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.”
61. “You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable. You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.”
62. “And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless? But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Reality
63. “What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?”
64. “The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.”
65. “Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know myself, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.”
66. “You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.”
67. “The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.”
68. “Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
69. “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”
70. “I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”
71. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
72. “A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Pain
73. “Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.”
74. “Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.”
75. “The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.”
76. “If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.”
77. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
78. “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
79. “When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
80. “Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.”
81. “We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”
82. “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”
83. “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
Also Read The Fault In Our Stars Quotes About Pain
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Society
84. “Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.”
85. “Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?”
86. “Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.”
87. “Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.”
88. “When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.”
89. “Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.”
90. “The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Famous
91. “They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.”
92. “I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.”
93. “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
94. “To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.”
95. “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
96. “A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?”
97. “I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”
98. “Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”
99. “Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.”
Short Khalil Gibran Quotes
100. “If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.”
101. “I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”
102. “Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.”
103. “Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.”
104. “Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”
105. “If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.”
106. “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.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Death
107. “Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.”
108. “If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.”
109. “If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one.”
110. “Defeat, my defeat, my deathless courage, You and I shall laugh together with the storm, And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us, and we shall stand in the sun with a will, And we shall be dangerous.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Music
111. “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.”
112. “When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?”
113. “Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.”
114. “When God created Man, he gave him Music as a language different from all other languages. And early man sang his glory in the wilderness; and drew the hearts of kings and moved them from their thrones.”
Also Read About Kevin Gates Quotes On Music
Khalil Gibran Quotes On Religion And God
115. “If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.”
116. “Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.”
117. “What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?”
118. “The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.”
119. “Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.”
120. “The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.”
Khalil Gibran Quotes On One-Liner
121. “You have your ideology and I have mine.”
122. “Love is trembling happiness.”
123. “Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.”
124. “Your friend is your needs answered.”
125. “Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.'”
126. “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
127. “Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.”
128. “We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”
129. “Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.”
130. “Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.”
131. “If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?”
132. “Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.”
133. “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”
Khalil Gibran was one of a kind who was born once in a million years. Looking back at his struggles he had a dimmed future. All these Khalil Gibran quotes show why he was appreciated as a writer, a poet, and a painter.
