Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran (85 page)

BELIEVER

When you
know
a thing, you
believe
it, and the true believer sees with his
spiritual discernment
that which the surface investigator cannot see with the eyes of his head, and he understands through his
inner
thought that which the outside examiner cannot understand with his demanding, acquired process of thought.

The believer acquaints himself with the sacred realities through deep senses different from those used by others. A believer looks upon his senses as a great wall surrounding him, and when he walks upon the path he says, “This city has no exit, but it is perfect within.” The believer lives for all the days and the nights and the unfaithful live but a few hours.

SH-T-149

BODY

He who endeavours to cleave the body from the spirit, or the spirit from the body, is directing his heart away from truth. The flower and its fragrance are one, and the blind who deny the colour and the image of the flower, believing that it possesses only a fragrance vibrating the ether, are like those with pinched nostrils who believe that flowers are naught but pictures and colours, possessing no fragrance.

SH-T-139

Life is naked. A nude body is the truest and noblest symbol of life. If I draw a mountain as a heap of human forms and paint a waterfall in the shape of tumbling human bodies, it is because I see in the mountain a heap of living things, and in the waterfall a precipitate current of life.

KG-P-102

BOSTON

This city was called in the past the city of science and art, but today it is the city of traditions. The souls of its inhabitants are petrified; even their thoughts are old and worn-out. The strange thing about this city is that the petrified is always proud and boastful, and the worn-out and old holds its chin high.

SP-ST-53

BOUNTY

An eternal hunger for love and beauty is my desire; I know now that those who possess bounty alone are naught but miserable, but to my spirit the sighs of lovers are more soothing than music of the lyre.

T-413

BRAVERY

Bravery is a volcano; the seed of wavering does not grow on its crater.

MS-72

BROTHERHOOD

I love you because you are weak before the strong oppressor, and poor before the greedy rich. For these reasons I shed tears and comfort you; and from behind my tears I see you embraced in the arms of Justice, smiling and forgiving your persecutors. You are my brother and I love you.

TL-T-7

I love you, my brother, whoever you are—whether you worship in your church, kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque. You and I are all children of one faith, for the divers paths of religion are fingers of the loving hand of one Supreme Being, a hand extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive all.

WM-ST-69

C

CHAINS

Not everyone in chains is subdued;

At times, a chain is greater than a necklace.

   
MS-74

CHARITY

The coin which you drop into

The withered hand stretching toward

You is the only golden chain that

Binds your rich heart to the

Loving heart of God….

   
SH-T-345

CHATTER

I abstain from the people who consider insolence, bravery and tenderness cowardice. And I abstain from those who consider chatter wisdom and silence ignorance.

MS-71

CHILDHOOD

The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves.

SP-ST-27

CHURCHES

Oh Jesus, they have built these churches for the sake of their own glory, and embellished them with silk and melted gold…. They left the bodies of Thy chosen poor wrapped in tattered raiment in the cold night…. They filled the sky with the smoke of burning candles and incense and left the bodies of Thy faithful worshippers empty of bread…. They raised their voices with hymns of praise, but deafened themselves to the cry and moan of the widows and orphans.

Come again, O Living Jesus, and drive the vendors of Thy faith from Thy sacred temple, for they have turned it into a dark cave where vipers of hypocrisy and falsehood crawl and abound.

SH-T-81

CITIZENSHIP

What is it to be a good citizen?

It is to acknowledge the other person's rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your own.

It is to create the useful and the beautiful with your own hands, and to admire what others have created in love and with faith.

It is to create the useful and the beautiful with you own hands, and to admire what others have created in love and with faith.

It is to produce by labor and only by labor and to spend less than you have produced that your children may not be dependent upon the state for support when you are no more.

MS-35

CITY

Oh people of the noisome city, who are living in darkness, hastening toward misery, preaching falsehood, and speaking with stupidity … until when shall you remain ignorant? Until when shall you abide in the filth of life and continue to desert its gardens? Why wear your tattered robes of narrowness while the silk raiment of Nature's beauty is fashioned for you? The lamp of wisdom is dimming; it is time to furnish it with oil. The house of true fortune is being destroyed; it is time to rebuild it and guard it. The thieves of ignorance have stolen the treasure of your peace; it is time to retake it!

TL-T-403

CIVILIZATION

The misery of our Oriental nations is the misery of the world, and what you call
civilization
in the West is naught but another spectre of the many phantoms of tragic deception.

SH-T-25

Inventions and discoveries are but amusement and comfort for the body when it is tired and weary. The conquest of distance and the victory over the seas are but false fruit which do not satisfy the soul, nor nourish the heart, neither lift the spirit, for they are afar from nature. And those structures and theories which man calls knowledge and art are naught except shackles and golden chains which man drags, and he rejoices with their glittering reflections and ringing sounds. They are strong cages whose bars man commenced fabricating ages ago, unaware that he was building from the inside, and that he would soon become his own prisoner to eternity.

SH-T-26

CLERGYMAN

The clergyman erects his temple upon the graves and bones of the devoted worshippers.

SR-T-269

CONCEALMENT

Conceal your passion; your sickness is also your medicine because love to the soul is as wine in a glass—what you see is liquid, what is hidden is its spirit….

Conceal your troubles; then, should the seas roar and the skies fall, you will be safe.

MS-76

CONSCIENCE

Conscience is a just but weak judge. Weakness leaves it powerless to execute its judgment.

TM-ST-118

CONTENTMENT

Be not satisfied with partial contentment, for he who engulfs the spring of life with one empty jar will depart with two full jars.

SH-T-136

Fortune craves not Contentment, for it is an earthly hope, and its desires are embraced by union with objects, while Contentment is naught but heartfelt.

TL-T-92

CONTRADICTION

Contradiction is a lower degree of intelligence.

MS-72

COUNSEL

My brothers, seek counsel of one another, for therein lies the way out of error and futile repentance. The wisdom of the many is your shield against tyranny. For when we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

WM-ST-67

My soul is my counsel and has taught me to give ear to the voices which are neither created by tongues nor uttered by throats.

Before my soul became my counsel, I was dull, and weak of hearing, reflecting only upon the tumult and the cry. But, now, I can listen to silence with serenity and can hear in the silence the hymns of ages chanting exaltation to the sky and revealing the secrets of eternity.

MS-V

COUNTRY LIFE

We who live amid the excitements of the city know nothing of the life of the mountain villagers. We are swept into the current of urban existence, until we forget the peaceful rhythms of simple country life, reap in autumn, rest in winter, imitating nature in all her cycles. We are wealthier than the villagers in silver or gold, but they are richer in spirit. What we sow we reap not; they reap what they sow. We are slaves of gain, and they the children of contentment. Our draught from the cup of life is mixed with bitterness and despair, fear and weariness; but they drink the pure nectar of life's fulfillment.

TM-ST-53

COURAGE

The spirit who has seen the spectre of death cannot be scared by the faces of thieves; the soldier who has seen the swords glittering over his head and streams of blood under his feet does not care about rocks thrown at him by the children on the streets.

BW-ST-106

COURSER

My soul, living is like a courser of the night; the swifter its flight, the nearer the dawn.

WM-ST-69

CREEDS

People's creeds come forth, then perish

   Like the shadows in the night.

  
P-46

CRIMINAL

For the Criminal who is weak and poor the

Narrow cell of death awaits; but

Honour and glory await the rich who

Conceal their crimes behind their

Gold and silver and inherited glory.

   
T-364

D

DARKNESS

God has bestowed upon you intelligence and knowledge. Do not extinguish the lamp of Divine Grace and do not let the candle of wisdom die out in the darkness of lust and error. For a wise man approaches with his torch to light up the path of mankind.

WM-ST-62

DEATH

Man is like the foam of the sea, that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives blown away by Death.

WM-ST-31

The Reality of Life is Life itself, whose beginning is not in the womb, and whose ending is not in the grave. For the years that pass are naught but a moment in eternal life; and the world of matter and all in it is but a dream compared to the awakening which we call the terror of Death.

WM-ST-32

The soul is an embryo in the body of

Man, and the day of death is the

Day of awakening, for it is the

Great era of labour and the rich

Hour of creation.

   
T-373

Death is an ending to the son of

The earth, but to the soul it is

The start, the triumph of life.

   
T-374

Death removes but the

Touch, and not the awareness of

All good. And he who has lived

One spring or more possesses the

Spiritual life of one who has

Lived a score of springs.

   
T-375

A child in the womb, no sooner born than returned to the earth—such is the fate of man, the fate of nations and of the sun, the moon, and the stars.

S

DESPAIR

Despair is an ebb for every flow in the heart; it's a mute affection.

SP-ST-57

Despair weakens our sight and closes our ears. We can see nothing but spectres of doom, and can hear only the beating of our agitated hearts.

BW-ST-98

DESPOT

The ignorant nations arrest their good men and turn them into their despots; and a country, ruled by a tyrant, persecutes those who try to free the people from the yoke of slavery.

SR-T-274

DESTINY

Man possesses a destiny

Which impels his thoughts and

Actions and words, and that not

Sufficing, directs his footsteps to

A place of unwilling abode.

   
T-376

DESTRUCTION

I am indeed a fanatic and I am inclined toward destruction as well as construction. There is hatred in my heart for that which my detractors sanctify, and love for that which they reject. And if I could uproot certain customs, beliefs, and traditions of the people, I would do so without hesitation. When they said my books were poison, they were speaking truth about themselves, for what I say is poison to them. But they falsified when they said I mix honey into it, for I apply the poison full strength and pour it from transparent glass. Those who call me an idealist becalmed in clouds are the very ones who turn away from the transparent glass they call poison, knowing that their stomachs cannot digest it.

TM-ST-91

DEVIL

Remember, one just man causes the Devil greater affliction than a million blind believers.

WM-ST-62

DICHOTOMY

He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.

BW-ST-20

DIVINITY

Remember that Divinity is the true self of Man. It cannot be sold for gold; neither can it be heaped up as are the riches of the world today. The rich man has cast off his Divinity, and has clung to his gold. And the young today have forsaken their Divinity and pursue self-indulgence and pleasure.