Khalil Gibran

"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."

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

"Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper."

"Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself."

"Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed."

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

"Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents."

"And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."

"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."

"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."

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother."

"Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof."

"Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking."

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

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

"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."

"I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires."

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

"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."

"If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were."

"If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?"

"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."

"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit."

"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit."

"Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love."

"Love... it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be."

"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."

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."

"Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary."

"Sadness is but a wall between two gardens."

"The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold."

"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."

"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."

"To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice."

"Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity."

"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."

"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."

"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?"

"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?"

"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."

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

"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."

"Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all."

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."