Khalil Gibran

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

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?

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.

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.

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.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

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.

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.

Love is trembling happiness.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

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?

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.