Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran (86 page)

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DOCTORS

Since the beginning of the world, the doctors have been trying to save the people from their disorders; some used knives, while others used potions, but pestilence spread hopelessly. It is my wish that the patient would content himself with remaining in his filthy bed, meditating his long-continued sores; but instead, he stretches his hands from under the robe and clutches at the neck of each who comes to visit him, choking him to death. What irony it is! The evil patient kills the doctor, and then closes his eyes and says within himself, “He was a great physician.”

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E

EARTH

The earth that opens wide her mouth to swallow man and his works is the redeemer of our souls from bondage to our bodies.

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EAST AND WEST

The West is not higher than the East, nor is the West lower than the East, and the difference that stands between the two is not greater than the difference between the tiger and the lion. There is a just and perfect law that I have found behind the exterior of society, which equalizes misery, prosperity, and ignorance; it does not prefer one nation to another, nor does it oppress one tribe in order to enrich another.

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EDIFICE

What man is capable of leaving an edifice on whose construction he has spent all his life, even though that edifice is his own prison? It is difficult to get rid of it in one day.

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EQUALITY

One hour devoted to mourning and lamenting the
Stolen equality of the weak is nobler than a
Century filled with greed and usurpation.
   
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ETERNITY

Each thing that exists remains forever, and the very existence of existence is proof of its eternity. But without that realization, which is the knowledge of perfect being, man would never know whether there was existence or non-existence. If eternal existence is altered, then it must become more beautiful; and if it disappears, it must return with more sublime image; and if it sleeps, it must dream of a better awakening, for it is ever greater upon its rebirth.

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Only those return to Eternity

Who on earth seek out Eternity.

   
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EVOLUTION

The law of evolution has a severe and oppressive countenance and those of limited or fearful mind dread it; but its principles are just, and those who study them become enlightened. Through its Reason men are raised above themselves and can approach the sublime.

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EXCESS

In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.

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I will not be surprised if the “thinkers” say of me, “He is a man of excess who looks upon life's seamy side and reports nothing but gloom and lamentation.”

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EXILE

He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty.

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EYE

I feel pity toward those who admit of the eternity of the elements of which the eye is made, but at the same time doubt the eternity of the various objects of sight which employ the eye as a medium.

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Man's eye is a magnifier; it shows him the earth much larger than it is.

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F

FACE

A look which reveals inward stress adds more beauty to the face, no matter how much tragedy and pain it bespeaks; but the face which, in silence, does not announce hidden mysteries is not beautiful, regardless of the symmetry of its features. The cup does not entice our lips unless the wine's color is seen through the transparent crystal.

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FAITH

God has made many doors opening into truth which He opens to all who knock upon them with hands of faith.

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FAME

There is something in our life which is nobler and more supreme than fame; and this
something
is the great deed that invokes fame.

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FATE

Circumstances drive us on

In narrow paths by Kismet hewn.

For Fate has ways we cannot change,

While weakness preys upon our Will;

We bolster with excuse the self,

And help that Fate ourselves to kill.

   
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Life takes us up and bears us from one place to another; Fate moves us from one point to another. And we, caught up between these twain, hear dreadful voices and see only that which stands as a hindrance and obstacle in our path.

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FEAR OF DEATH

Fear of death is a delusion

Harbored in the breast of sages;

He who lives a single Springtime

Is like one who lives for ages.

   
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FERTILITY

The body is a womb to soul

In which it dwells until full term,

When it ascends once more to soar,

While womb again recedes to germ.

   
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FIRST LOVE

Every young man remembers his first love and tries to recapture that strange hour, the memory of which changes his deepest feeling and makes him so happy in spite of all the bitterness of its mystery.

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FLOWERS

The flowers of the field are the children of sun's affection and nature's love; and the children of men are the flowers of love and compassion.

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FOLLY

The fool sees naught but folly; and the madman only madness. Yesterday I asked a foolish man to count the fools among us. He laughed and said, “This is too hard a thing to do, and it will take too long. Were it not better to count only the wise?”

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I once heard a learned man say, “Every evil has its remedy, except folly. To reprimand an obstinate fool or to preach to a dolt is like writing upon the water. Christ healed the blind, the halt, the palsied, and the leprous. But the fool He could not cure.”

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FORBIDDEN

When you behold a man turning aside from

Things forbidden that bring

Abysmal crime to self, look

Upon him with eyes of love, for

He is a preserver of God in him.

   
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FREEDOM

I love freedom, and my love for true
Freedom grew with my growing knowledge
Of the people's surrender to slavery
And oppression and tyranny, and of
Their submission to the horrible idols
Erected by the past ages and polished
By the parched lips of the slaves.
But I love those slaves with my love
For freedom, for they blindly kissed
The jaws of ferocious beasts in calm
And blissful unawareness, feeling not
The venom of the smiling vipers, and
Unknowingly digging their graves with
Their own fingers.
   
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Dying for Freedom is nobler than living in
The shadow of weak submission, for
He who embraces death with the sword
Of Truth in his hand will eternalize
With the Eternity of Truth, for Life
Is weaker than Death and Death is
Weaker than Truth.
   
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The free on earth builds of his strife
     A prison for his own duress,
When he is freed from his own kin,
     Is slave to thought and love's caress.
   
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Life without Freedom is like a body without a soul, and Freedom without Thought is like a confused spirit…. Life, Freedom, and Thought are three-in-one, and are everlasting and never pass away.

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Freedom bids us to her table where we may partake of her savory food and rich wine; but when we sit down at her board, we eat ravenously and glut ourselves.

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You may chain my hands and shackle my feet; you may even throw me into a dark prison, but you shall not enslave my thinking because it is free.

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FRIENDSHIP

Friendship with the ignorant is as foolish as arguing with a drunkard.

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G

GENTLENESS

The gentleness of some is like

A polished shell with silky feel,

Lacking the precious pearl within

Oblivious of the brother's weal.

When you shall meet one who is strong

And gentle too, pray feast your eyes;

For he is glorious to behold,

The blind can see his qualities.

   
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GIANTS

We live in an era whose humblest men are becoming greater than the greatest men of preceding ages. What once preoccupied our minds is now of no consequence. The veil of indifference covers it. The beautiful dreams that once hovered in our consciousness have been dispersed like mist. In their place are giants moving like tempests, raging like seas, breathing like volcanoes.

What destiny will the giants bring the world at the end of their struggles? …

What will be the destiny of your country and mine? Which giant shall seize the mountains and valleys that produced us and reared us and made us men and women before the face of the sun? …

Which one of you people does not ponder day and night on the fate of the world under the rule of the giants intoxicated with the tears of widows and orphans?

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GLORY

One hour devoted to the pursuit of Beauty
And Love is worth a full century of glory
Given by the frightened weak to the strong.
   
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I have seen you, my brother, sitting upon the throne of glory, and around you stood your people acclaiming your majesty, and singing praises of your great deeds, extolling your wisdom, and gazing upon you as though in the presence of a prophet, their spirits exulting even to the canopy of heaven.

And as you gazed upon your subjects, I saw in your face the marks of happiness and power and triumph, as if you were the soul of their body.

But when I looked again, behold I found you alone in your loneliness, standing by the side of your throne, an exile stretching his hand in every direction, as if pleading for mercy and kindness from invisible ghosts—begging for shelter, even such as has naught in it but warmth and friendliness.

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GOD

Man has worshipped his own self since the beginning, calling that self by appropriate titles, until now, when he employs the word “God” to mean that same self.

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Most religions speak of God in the masculine gender. To me He is as much a mother as He is a Father. He is both the father and the mother in one; and Woman is the God-Mother. The God-Father may be reached through the mind or the imagination. But the God-Mother can be reached through the heart only—through love. And Love is that holy wine which the gods distill from their hearts and pour into the hearts of men. Those only taste it pure and divine whose hearts have been cleansed of all the animal lusts. For clean hearts to be drunk with love is to be drunk with God. Those, on the other hand, who drink it mixed with the wines of earthly passions taste but the orgies of devils in Hell.

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It were wiser to speak less of God, Whom we cannot understand, and more of each other, whom we may understand. Yet I would have you know that we are the breath and the fragrance of God. We are God, in leaf, in flower, and oftentimes in fruit.

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GOLD

Gold leads into gold, then into restlessness, and finally into crushing misery.

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The life that the rich man spends in heaping up gold is in truth like the life of the worms in the grave. It is a sign of fear.

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GOOD

The good in man should freely flow,
     As evil lives beyond the grave;
While Time with fingers moves the pawns
     Awhile, then breaks the knight and knave.
   
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GOVERNOR

Are you a governor looking down on those you govern, never stirring abroad except to rifle their pockets or to exploit them for your own profit? If so, you are like tares upon the threshing floor of the nation.

Are you a devoted servant who loves the people and is ever watchful over their welfare, and zealous for their success? If so, you are a blessing in the granaries of the land.

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HANDS

How small is the life of the person who places his hands between his face and the world, seeing naught but the narrow lines of his hands!

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HAPPINESS

I sought happiness in my solitude, and
As I drew close to her I heard my soul
Whisper into my heart, saying, “The
Happiness you seek is a virgin, born
And reared in the depths of each heart,
And she emerges not from her birthplace.”
And when I opened my heart to find her,
I discovered in its domain only her

Mirror and her cradle and her raiment,
And happiness was not there.
   
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Happiness is a myth we seek,
     If manifested surely irks;
Like river speeding to the plain,
     On its arrival slows and murks.

For man is happy only in
     His aspiration to the heights;
When he attains his goal, he cools
     And longs for other distant flights.
   
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