When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Love |
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become
sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
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.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Love |
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Love |
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Love |
If you love and must needs have desires, let these be your
desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to
the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another
day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart
and a song of praise upon your lips.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Love |
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your
days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let winds of the heavens dance between you.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Marriage |
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, and yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot
visit, not even in your dreams.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Children |
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Giving |
It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked,
through understanding.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Giving |
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.
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet, On Work |