Khalil Gibran

“Denn was ist das Böse anderes als das Gute, von seinem eigenen Hunger und Durst gequält?”

“[I]st nicht die Zeit wie die Liebe, ungeteilt und ungezügelt?”

“Der Gedanke ist ein Vogel, der Raum braucht und in einem Käfig von Worten zwar seine Flügel ausbreiten, aber nicht fliegen kann.”

“Ihr redet, wenn ihr aufhört mit euren Gedanken in Frieden zu sein.”

“Liebe, die etwas anderes sucht als die Offenbarung ihres eigenen Mysteriums, ist nicht Liebe, sondern ein ausgeworfenes Netz: und nur das Nutzlose wird gefangen.”

“Euer Freund ist die Antwort auf eure Nöte.”

“Wenn [der Lehrer] wirklich weise ist, fordert er euch nicht auf, ins Haus seiner Weisheit einzutreten, sondern führt euch an die Schwelle eures eigenen Geistes.”

“Der Lehrer [...] gibt nicht von seiner Weisheit, sondern eher von seinem Glauben und seiner Liebe.”

“Niemand kann euch etwas eröffnen, das nicht schon im Dämmern eures Wissens schlummert.”

“[I]hr könnt nur frei sein, wenn selbst der Wunsch, die Freiheit zu suchen, euch zum Zügel wird und wenn ihr aufhört, von Freiheit als Ziel und Erfüllung zu reden.”

“[I]m Hain des Tempels und im Schatten der Zitadelle habe ich die Freiesten unter euch ihre Freiheit als Joch und Handschellen tragen sehen.”

“[Wer fällt] fällt für die vor ihm, die obgleich schneller und sicherer im Schritt, den Stein des Anstoßes nicht entfernten.”

“[W]enn der Austausch [Handel] nicht in Liebe und freundlicher Gerechtigkeit stattfindet, wird er bloß einige zur Gier und andere zum Hunger führen.”

“Euer Haus ist euer größerer Körper.”

“Je tiefer sich das Leid in euer Sein eingräbt, desto mehr Freude könnt ihr fassen.”

“[W]enn ihr nicht mit Liebe, sondern nur mit Widerwillen arbeiten könnt, lasst besser eure Arbeit [...] und nehmt Almosen von denen, die mit Freude arbeiten.”

“Arbeit ist sichtbar gemachte Liebe.”

“[I]n Wahrheit ist es das Leben, das dem Leben gibt – während ihr, die ihr euch als Gebende fühlt, nichts anderes seid als Zeugen.”

“[W]elcher Verdienst wäre größer als der Mut und das Vertrauen, ja auch die Nächstenliebe, die im Empfangen liegt?”

“Ihr gebt nur wenig, wenn ihr von eurem Besitz gebt. - Erst wenn ihr von euch selber gebt, gebt ihr wahrhaft.”

“Eure Kinder sind nicht eure Kinder. - Sie sind die Söhne und Töchter der Sehnsucht des Lebens nach sich selber.”

“Wenn die Liebe winkt, folge ihr...”

“Listen to the women when she looks at you, not when she talks to you.”

“Work is love made visible. And if you can't 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 the people who work with joy”

“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.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 what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live.For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.And in th 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 timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.”

“They say: 'If a man knew himself,he would know all mankind.'I say: 'If a man loved mankind,he would know something of himself.”

“Hearts united in pain and sorrowwill not be separated by joy and happiness.Bonds that are woven in sadnessare stronger than the ties of joy and pleasure.Love that is washed by tearswill remain eternally pure and faithful.”

“And your fragrance shall be my breath,And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”

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

“You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.”

“Sedikit pengetahuan yang dilaksanakan jauh lebih berharga daripada banyak pengetahuan tapi tidak digunakan.”

“Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.”

“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.”

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”

“All that spirits desire, spirits attain.”

“Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”

“It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.”

“Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.”

“The real test of good manners is to be able to put up with bad manners pleasantly.”

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

“Much of your pain is self-chosen.It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,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.”

“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.”

“For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.”

“We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.”

“I AM IGNORANT of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.”

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.And how else can it be?The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

“The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom”

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”