Kahlil Gibran Quotes

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter1883–1931 36 quotes

Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, born in Bsharri in Mount Lebanon in 1883. He emigrated to the United States with his mother and siblings as a boy, grew up in Boston, and later studied art in Paris before settling in New York in 1911.

He is best known for The Prophet, first published in 1923, which has been translated into more than 100 languages and is among the best-selling books ever printed. Writing in both Arabic and English, he became one of the strongest influences on Arabic literature of his time and remains a literary hero in Lebanon. He died in 1931, at 48.
Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.

— The Essential Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands. Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind. Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward,

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

Self is a sea boundless and measureless.

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

I cannot tarry longer. The sea that calls all things unto her calls me

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself.

— Sand and Foam

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

I deserted the world and sought solitude because I became tired of rendering courtesy to those multitudes who believe that humility is a sort of weakness, and mercy a kind of cowardice, and snobbery a form of strength.

— A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

— The Prophet

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and painter

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. 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.

— The Prophet