Khalil Gibran

“And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?”

“You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore.”

“He who has not been bitten by the serpents of light and snapped at by the wolves of darkness will always be deceived by the days and the nights.”

“Per arrivare all'alba non c'è altra via che la nottte.”

“What shall i say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.”

“Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.”

“You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.For those who limp go not backwards.But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.”

“He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.”

“They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.”

“Do not limp before the lame, deeming it a kindness.”

“We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting”

“Life is but a sleep disturbed by dreaming, prompted by the will; the saddened soul with sadness hides it's secrets, and the gay, with thrill.”

“Chaque hiver abrite en son coeur un printemps qui frissonne et derrière le voile de chaque nuit se profile une aube souriante”

“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. Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.”

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.”

“Sačuvaj me od onoga koji istinu ne može reći, a da ne ubode;od onog čovjeka s dobrim izražavanjem ali lošim namjeramai od onog koji samopoštovanje stječe pronalazeći pogreške u drugih.”

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

“Behind the veil of each night, there is a smiling dawn.”

“O rouxinol nega-se a aninhar na gaiola, para que a escravidão não seja o destino da sua cria.”

“Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy their great virtues.”

“We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.”

“Yea, I shall return with the tide.”

“Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.”

“Kad vas ljubav pozove, podjite za njom, Premda su staze njene tegobne i strme.A kad vas krila njena obgrle, prepustite joj se, Premda vas mač, skriven medju perima njenim, može povrediti.A kad vam progovori, verujte joj, Premda vam glas njen može uništiti snove, k'o sto severac opustoši vrt.Jer, baš kao što vas kruniše, ljubav će vas i razapeti.Isto kao što vas podstiče da rastete, isto tako će vas i okresati.Kao što se uspinje do visina vaših i miluje vam grančice najtananije što trepere na suncu,Tako će se spustiti i do vašeg korenja i protresti ga u njegovom prijanjanju za zemlju.Poput snoplja pščeničnog, sakupiće vas u naručje svoje.Omlatiće vas, da bi vas ogolila. Prosejaće vas, da bi vas otrebila od kukolja.Samleće vas, do beline. Umesiće vas, dok ne postanete gipki.A onda će vas izložiti svojoj svetoj vatri, tako da postanete sveti hleb za svetu Božiju svetkovinu.Sve će vam to ljubav učiniti, ne biste li spoznali tajne svoga srca i u spoznaji toj postali deo srca Života. Budete li, pak, u strahu svome tražili samo ljubavni mir i zadovoljstvo,Bolje vam je onda da pokrijete golotinju svoju, i odete sa gumna ljubavi,U svet koji ne poznaje godišnja doba gde ćete se smejati, al' ne punoćom smeha svog i plakati,al' ne do poslednje suze svoje. Ljubav ne daje ništa osim sebe i nšta ne uzima, osim sebe.Ljubav ne poseduje, niti dopušta da je poseduju; Jer, ljubav je dovoljna ljubavi.Kad volite, ne treba da kažete: "Bog mi je u srcu", već: "Ja sam u srcu Božijem."I nemojte misliti da možete usmeriti puteve ljubavi,jer ljubav, ako joj se učinite vrednima, usmeriće vaše puteve.Ljubav nema drugih želja, nego da se ispuni.Ali, ako volite a morate još i da želite, neka vam ovo budu želje:Da se istopite i budete kao potok razigrani što peva svoj milozvuk noći.Da spoznate bol prevelike nežnosti. Da vas rani sopsvtveno poimanje ljubavi;I da krvarite drage volje i radosno.Da se probudite u praskozorje sa srcem krilatimi uputite zahvalniicu za još jedan dan ljubavi;Da otpočnete u poslepodnevnom času i razmišljate o ljubavnom zanosu;Da se s večeri vratite kući sa zahvalnočću,A potom da usnite s molitvom za voljenog u srcu i pesmom slavljeničkom na usnama…”

“You are far, far greater than you know - and all is well.”

“Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward, And then I shall stand among you a seafarer among seafarers.”

“Perhaps time’s definition of coal is the diamond.”

“And when his wings enfold you yield to him,Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.”

“Poiché l'amore come v'incorona così vi crocefigge. E come vi fa fiorire così vi reciderà.”

“Vi sono istanti che contengono secoli di separazione. E tuttavia la separazione non è che un dissolversi della mente. Forse noi non ci siamo mai separati.”

“Non siamo che un'onda in più tra le onde.”

“It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much.”

“Let your home be you mast and not your anchor.”

“I have yet to meet an ignorant man whose roots are not embedded in my soul.”

“Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.It is thy desire in us that desireth. It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also. We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us: Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.”

“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.And when you have reached the mountaintop,then you shall begin to climb.And when the earth shal claim your limbs,then shall you truly dance.”

“That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined.Is it not your breath that has erected and hardened the structure of your bones?”

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

“If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.”

“Beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,But rather a heart inflamed and a soul enchanted.It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a win attached to a claw,But rather a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels forever in flight.Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil.Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror.But you are eternity and you are the mirror.”

“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may livethrough its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.”

“Your friend is your needs answered.When you part from your friend, you grieve not;For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.”

“And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.”

“For what is prayer but the expansion of your self into the living ether?”

“And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.”

“And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.”

“And 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.”

“The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm, nor the voice that echoes it.”

“For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.”