12 Inspirational Quotes from Kahlil Gibran

Reading Time: 3 minutes

By Pichaya Avery

Gibran Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese-American author, philosopher, poet, and artist. A bio and list of his books may be found here.

Mike’s and my favorite book by Gibran is The Wanderer. We selected the following four-paragraph story (p. 27) as an introduction to his 12 inspirational quotes.

Upon the Sand

Said one man to another, “At the high tide of the sea, long ago, with the point of my staff I wrote a line in the sand; and the people still pause to read it, and they’re careful that naught shall erase it.”

And the other man said, “And I too wrote a line upon the sand, but it was at low tide, and waves of the vast sea washed it away. But tell me, what did you write?”

And the first man answered and said, “I wrote this: ‘I am he who is.’ But what did you write?”

And the other man answered and said, “This I wrote: ‘I am but a drop of this great ocean.'”

Your pain is the breaking of the shell

that encloses your understanding.

—Kahlil Gibran

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet

and the winds long to play with your hair.

—Kahlil Gibran

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.

—Kahlil Gibran

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.

—Kahlil Gibran

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

—Kahlil Gibran

If you love somebody, let them go,

for if they return, they were always yours.

And if they don’t, they never were.

—Kahlil Gibran

Faith is an oasis in the heart.

—Kahlil Gibran

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge.

—Kahlil Gibran

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content

in our everyday life and share with the people the same

happiness.

—Kahlil Gibran

But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

—Kahlil Gibran

Love… it surrounds every being

and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

—Kahlil Gibran

Artwork by Riley Carson

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