Khalil Gibran

“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

“Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.”

“When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.”

“Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.”

“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?”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”

“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.”

“Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.”

“Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.”

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