Khalil Gibran

“If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.”

“For the soul walks upon all paths.”

“But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure.”

“And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.”

“For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,”

“Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:”

“It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.”

“Much of your pain is self-chosen.”

“Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.”

“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.”

“you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?”

“You who travel with the wind, what weather vane shall direct your course?”

“They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.”

“Aye, and he falls for those ahead of him, who, though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.”

“And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.”

“You are the way and the wayfarers.”

“Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.”

“So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.”

“And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree.”

“And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.”

“And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.”

“For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.”

“For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.”

“It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye.”

“Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.”

“Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?”

“Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?”

“Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments.”

“Your house is your larger body.”

“Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within the city walls.”

“When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.”

“And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives?”

“Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?”

“And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.”

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.”

“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”

“For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.”

“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.”

“Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.”

“And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.”

“For to be overmindful of your debt is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.”

“For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.”

“Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.”

“All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.”

“And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”

“When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”

“For love is sufficient unto love.”

“Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory.”

“You have walked among us a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon our faces.”

“Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me?”