The Gospel of Khalil Gibran

Love lies in the soul alone, not in the body and like wine should stimulate our better self to welcome gifts of Love Divine.

Man’s will is a floating shadow in the mind he conceives, and the rights of mankind pass and perish like the autumn leaves.

Fear of death is a delusion, harbored in the breast of sages; he who lives as a single springtime is like one who lives for ages.

He is a stranger to this life, stranger to those who praise or blame, for he upholds the Torch of Truth, although devoured by the flame.

The soul is a golden ring detached from the chain of divinity.

If a man be just, no persecution can torture him, and no tyranny can destroy him. Socrates drank down his hemlock with a smile on his face, and Paul rejoiced being stoned.

I love freedom, and my love for true freedom grew with my growing knowledge of the people's surrender to slavery and oppression and tyranny, and of their submission to the horrible idols erected by the past ages and polished by the parched lips of the slaves. But I love those slaves with my love for freedom, for they blindly kissed the jaws of ferocious beasts in calm and blissful unawareness, feeling not the venom of the smiling vipers, and unknowingly digging their graves with their own fingers.

Dying for Freedom is nobler than living in the shadow of weak submissi

on, for He who embraces death with the sword. Of Truth in his hand will eternalize with the Eternity of Truth, for Life is weaker than Death, and Death is weaker than Truth.

Believing is a fine thing, but placing those beliefs into execution is a test of strength. Many are those who talk like the roar of the sea, but their lives are shallow and stagnant, like the rotting marshes. Many are those who lift their heads above the mountain tops, but their spirits remain dormant in the obscurity of the caverns.

Not all of us are enabled to see with our inner eyes the great depths of life, and it is cruel to demand the weak-sighted see the dim and the far.

He who endeavors to cleave the body from the spirit, or the spirit from the body is directing his heart away from truth. The flower and its fragrance are one, and the blind who deny the color and the image of the flower, believing that it possesses only a fragrance vibrating the ether, are like those with pinched nostrils who believe that flowers are naught but pictures and colors, possessing no fragrance.

It is impossible for the mirror of the soul to reflect in the imagination anything which does not stand before it. It is impossible for the calm lake to show in its depth the figure of any mountain or the picture of any tree or cloud that does not exist close by the lake. It is impossible for the light to throw upon the earth a shadow of an object that has no being. Nothing can be seen, heard, or otherwise sensed unless it has actual being.

The West is not higher than the East, nor is the West lower than the East, and the difference that stands between the two is not greater than the difference between the tiger and the lion. There is a just and perfect law that I have found behind the exterior of society, which equalizes misery, prosperity, and ignorance; it does not prefer one nation to another, nor does it oppress one tribe in order to enrich another. Persecution cannot harm him who stands by Truth. Did not Socrates fall proudly a victim in body? Was not Paul stoned for the sake of the Truth? It is our inner self that hurts us when we disobey and kills us when we betray. Each thing that exists remains forever, and the very existence of existence is proof of its eternity. But without the realization, which is the knowledge of perfect being, man would never know whether there was existence or non-existence. If eternal existence is altered, then it must become more beautiful; and if it disappears, it must return with more sublime image; and if it sleeps, it must dream of a better awakening, for it is ever greater upon its rebirth.

Learning follows various roads. We note the start but not the end. For Time and Fate must rule the course, while we see not beyond the bend. The best of knowledge is a dream, the gainer holds steadfast, uncowed by ridicule and moves serene, despised and lowly in the crowd.

When you know a thing, you believe it, and the true

believer sees with his spiritual discernment that which the surface investigator cannot see with the eyes of his head, and he understands through his inner thought that which the outside examiner cannot understand with his demanding, acquired process of thought. The believer acquaints himself with the sacred realities through deep senses different from those used by others. A believer looks upon his senses as a great wall surrounding him, and when he walks upon the path he says, “This city has no exit, but it is perfect within.” The believer lives for all the days and the nights and the unfaithful live but a few hours.

The misery of our oriental nations is the misery of the world, and what you call civilization in the West is naught but another specter of the many phantoms of tragic deception.

Yet I saw slavery moving over all, in a glorious and majestic procession of ignorance. I saw the people sacrificing the youths and maidens at the feet of the idol, calling her the Queen; burning incense before her image, and calling her the Prophet; kneeling and worshipping before her, and calling her the Law; fighting and dying for her, and calling her Patriotism; submitting to her will, and calling her the Shadow of God on earth; destroying and demolishing homes and institutions for her sake, and calling her Fraternity; struggling and stealing and working for her, and calling her Fortune and Happiness; killing for her and calling her Equality. She possesses various names, but one reality. She has many appearances, but is made of one element. In truth, she is an everlasting ailment

bequeathed by each generation unto its successor.

The person who is limited in heart and thought is inclined to love that which is limited in life, and the weak-sighted cannot see more than one cubit ahead upon the path he treads, nor more than one cubit of the wall upon which he rests his shoulders.

Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him. If we were to do away with the various religions, we would find ourselves united and enjoying one great faith and religion, abounding in brotherhood.

The power to love is God’s greatest gift to man, for it never will be taken from the Blessed one who loves.

Inventions and discoveries are but amusement and comfort of the body when it is tired and weary. The conquest of distance and the victory over the seas are false fruit which do not satisfy the soul, nor nourish the heart, neither lift the spirit, for they are afar from nature. And those structures and theories which man calls knowledge and art are naught except shackles and golden chains which man drags, and he rejoices with their glittering reflections and ringing sounds. They are strong cages whose bars man commenced fabricating ages ago, unaware that he was building from the inside, and that he would soon become his own prisoner to eternity.

Man is empowered by God to hope and hope fervently until that for which he is hoping takes the cloak of

oblivion from his eyes, whereupon he will at last view his real self. And he who sees his real self sees the truth of real life for himself, for all humanity, and for all things. It is vain for the wayfarer to know upon the door of the empty house. Man is standing mutely because the non-existence within him and the reality of his surroundings. If we did not possess what we have within ourselves we could not have the things we call our environs.

Many great men attained their glory by surrendering themselves in complete submission to the will of the spirit, employing no reluctance or resistance to its demands, as a violin surrenders itself to the complete will of a fine musician.

Between the spiritual world and the world of substance there is a path upon which we walk in a swoon of slumber. It reaches us and we are unaware of its strength, and when we return to ourselves we find that we are carrying with our real hands the seeds to be planted carefully in the good earth of our daily lives, bringing forth good deeds and words of beauty. Were it not for that path between our lives and the departed lives, no prophet or poet or learned man would have appeared among the people. The very strength that protects the heart from injury is the strength that prevents the heart from enlarging to its intended greatness within. The song of the voice is sweet, but the song of the heart is the pure voice of heaven.

Jesus came not from the heart of the circle of Light to destroy the homes and upon their ruins the convents and monasteries. He did not persuade the strong man to become a monk or a priest, but He came to send forth upon this earth a new spirit, with power to crumble the foundations of any monarchy built upon human bones and skulls...He came to demolish the majestic palaces, constructed upon the graves of the weak, and crush the idols, erected upon the bodies of the poor. Jesus was not sent here to teach the people to build magnificent churches and temples amidst the cold wretched huts and dismal hovels...He came to make the human heart a temple, and the soul an altar, and the mind a priest.

How small is the life of a person who places his hands between his face and the world, seeing naught but the narrow lines of his hands.

All things in this creation exists within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found in all aspects of existence. Spiritual awakening is the most essential thing in man’s life, and it is the sole purpose of being. Is not

civilization, in all its tragic forms, a supreme motive for spiritual awakening? Then how can we deny existing matter, while its very existence is unwavering proof of its comfortability into the intended fitness? The present civilization may possess a vanishing purpose, but the eternal law has offered to that purpose a ladder whose steps can lead to a free substance.

Time and place are spiritual states, and all that is seen and heard is spiritual. If you close your eyes you will perceive all things through the depths of your inner self, and you will see the world physical and ethereal, in its intended entirely, and you will acquaint yourself with its necessary laws and precautions, and you will understand the greatness that it possesses beyond its closeness.

The very strength that protects the heart from injury is the strength that prevents the heart from enlarging to its intended greatness within. The song of the voice is sweet, but the song of the heart is the pure voice of heaven.

How blind is the one who fancies and plans a matter in all true form and angles, and when he cannot prove it completely with superficial measurement and word proofs, believes that his idea and imagination were empty objects! But if he contemplates with sincerity and meditates upon these happenings, he will understand with conviction that his idea is as much a reality as is the bird of the sky, but that it is not yet crystallized, and that the idea is a segment of knowledge that cannot be proved with figures and words, for it is too high and too spacious to be

imprisoned at that moment; too deeply embedded in the spiritual to submit yet to the real.

Society is of naught but clamor and woe and strife. She is but the web of the spider, the tunnel of the mole.

The purpose of the spirit in the Heart is concealed, and by outer Appearance cannot be judged.

I love mankind and I love equally all, three human kinds…the one who blasphemes life, the only who blesses it, and the one who meditates upon it. I love the first for his misery and the second for his generosity and the third for his perception and peace.

Man is weak by his own hand, for he has refashioned God’s law into his own confining manner of life, chaining himself with the coarse irons of the rules of society which he desired; and he is steadfast in refusing to be aware of the great tragedy he has cast upon himself and his children and their sons. Man has erected on this earth a prison of quarrels from which he cannot now escape, and misery is his voluntary lot.

God has made many doors opening into truth which He opens to all who knock upon them with hands of faith

An eternal hunger for love and beauty is my desire; I know now that those who possess bounty alone are naught but miserable, but to my spirit the sighs of lovers are more soothing than music of the lyre.

In the city the best of Man is but one of a flock, led by

the shepherd in strong voice. And he who follows not the command must soon stand before his killers.

Death is an ending to the son of the earth, but to the soul it is the start, the triumph of life.

The kindness of the people is but an empty shell containing no gem or precious pearl. With two hearts do people live; a small one of deep softness , the other of steel. And kindness is too often a shield, and generosity too often a sword.

Man possesses a destiny which impels his thoughts and actions and words, and that not sufficing, directs his footsteps to a place of unwilling abode.

Love and what generates it. Rebellion and what creates it. Liberty and what nourishes it. Three manifestations of God. And God is the conscience of the rational world.

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

The biggest thing in today's sorrow is the memory of yesterday's joy.

Life is indeed darkness except when there is urge, and all urge is blind except when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain except when there is work, and all work is empty except when there is love.

Wisdom is not in words; wisdom is meaning within words.

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

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

The tiny flame that lights up the human heart is like a blazing torch that comes down from heaven to light up the paths of mankind. For in one soul are contained the hopes and feelings of all Mankind.

Love is that splendid triggering of human vitality the supreme activity which nature affords anyone for going out of himself toward someone else.

The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says, but rather to what he does not say.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

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

Love is resolution added to my being, linking my present to generations past and future.

I purified my lips with sacred fire that I might speak of

love, but when I opened my mouth to speak, I found myself mute.

Love is a sigh from the sea of emotions, a tear from the sky of love, and a smile from the field of the soul.

I (God) am the inspiration of poets, the guide of artists, the musician's teacher.

Man caught between his heart and soul is like a thin branch whipping between the north wind and the south.Life is a paradise whose gate is the human heart.

Free me, Death, for eternity is a better place for lovers to meet than this world. There I await my beloved, and there we will be united.

Now love begins to make poetry of life's prose, to shape from past thoughts psalms to chant in the days and to sing in the nights. Now desire rips away the veils of doubt from the riddle of past years.

Mankind only exiles the one whose large spirit rebels against injustice and tyranny. He who does not prefer exile to servility is not free in the true and necessary sense of freedom.

Heaven did not wish man to be unhappy, for it has placed in the depths of his being a longing for happiness - for through man's happiness God is glorified.

All that is on the earth lives by the law of its nature. From the nature of its law it seeks the splendor and the

delights of freedom. But men are forbidden this goodness because they have entrusted their divine spirits to a worldly and limited law. They have subjected their bodies and souls to a single harsh law. For their desires and emotions they have raised a narrow and frightful prison, and for their hearts and minds they have dug a deep and gloomy grave. Whenever one arise among them and set himself apart from their society and laws, they say, "This is a wicked rebel, worthy of banishment, a defiled sinner who merits death." But is man to continue a slave to his corrupt laws until the end of the ages, or will time free him to live by the spirit and for the spirit? Will man continue to stare at the dust, or will he turn his eyes toward the sun so as not to see his shadow among the thorns and skulls?

Fate may come to you in a moment of heedlessness and stare at you with great and terrifying eyes, seize your neck in a grip of iron, throw you violently to the ground, trample you beneath its iron feet, and go away laughing. But soon it returns to you repentant, seeking forgiveness, gathering you up with silken hands, singing to you a hymn of hope, and filling you with song.

The lover finds solace in words of longing.

The oppressed finds pleasure in seeking mercy.

Love among spirits is like wine in a cup. It appears to be water, but in truth is life.

How harsh is life here, my beloved, for it is like the

heart of a criminal, filled with vice and horrors!

Love descends into our spirits by a decree of God, not by human intention.

Life is a woman who with pleasure takes the human heart as a lover but rejects it as a husband.

Life is a harlot, but she is beautiful. Whoever sees her harlotry abhors her beauty.

Life is a woman bathing in the tears of her lovers and anointing herself with the blood of her victims. Her raiments are white days, lined in the darkness of night. She takes the human heart, but denies herself in marriage.

Life is a woman, a beautiful sorceress seducing our hearts, beguiling our spirits, flooding our being with promises. If she is put off, she kills patience within us. If she is faithful, she awakens boredom within us.

Some people come forth from eternity and then return to it without having tasted of true life.

Man is my lover, and I am his beloved. I desire him, and he is inflamed by me. But, alas, I have a partner in his love who makes me wretched and torments him, a second wife named Matter who follows us wherever we go, a watcher keeping us apart. I seek my lover in the countryside among the trees and by the lakes, but I do not find him. Matter has beguiled him and led him away to the city, to society and corruption and misery. I seek him in the halls of knowledge and in the temples

of wisdom, but I do not find him. Matter, she who is dressed in dust, has led him to the fortresses of selfishness where heedlessness dwells. I seek him in the fields of contentment, but I do not find him, for my enemy has chained him in the caverns of gluttony and lust. I call to him at dawn, when the east is filled with joy, but he does not hear me, for his eyes are heavy with the torpor of greed. I caress him in the evening when the darkness becomes silence and the flowers sleep, but he will not pay me heed, because he thinks only of the concerns of the morrow. My lover loves me and seeks me in his own works, but he will find me only in the works of God. He seeks union with me in a palace of glory that he builds upon the skulls in a simple house built by the gods on the banks of the emotions' stream. He seeks to kiss me before tyrants and murderers, but I will only allow him to taste of my mouth in solitude among the pure flowers. He would make deceit an intermediary between us, but I desire no intermediary save the stainless deed, the selfless act. My lover has learned to cry and lament from my enemy, Matter; but I shall teach him to shed tears of entreaty from the eye of his soul and to sigh as he seeks contentment. My lover is mine, and I am his.

Whosoever does not spend his days in the theater of dreams is a slave all his days.

I am a metaphor that embraces reality, a reality that reveals the unity of the soul, a witness who justifies the ways of the gods. Tell them that thought has a homeland more splendid that the world of visible things, a homeland whose sky is not obscured by clouds of happiness. Tell them that what they imagine

is drawn in the sky of the gods and reflected upon the mirror of their souls. Thus may they hope for more when they are freed from this lower life.

The great truths that are above nature do not pass from one human being to another by means of ordinary human speech. Rather, they choose silence as the path between souls. I know well that the silence of this night hastens between our souls bearing messages more subtle than the words written by the spring breeze on the face of the water. It recites the book of our two hearts. But just as God wills to imprison souls in bodies, it is the will of love to make me a prisoner of words. They say, Beloved, that love is transformed in its servants into a consuming fire. I have found that the hour of separation has been unable to divide the essence of our two spirits, just as I knew at our meeting that my soul had known yours throughout the ages, just as I knew that my first sight of you was not in reality the first sight. Beloved! That hour bound together our two hearts, exiled from the higher world. That hour was one of those few hours that made firm my faith in the preexistence and immortality of the soul. In hours such as that nature unveils the face of its infinite justice, yet they think it to be tyranny.

A kiss is the preface to a two-fold sigh, telling the tale of the breath God blew into clay and thus made man.

The professors in the academy say, "Do not make the model more beautiful than she is," and my soul whispers, "O if you could only paint the model as beautiful as she really is."

 Each and every one of us...must have a resting place somewhere. The resting place of my soul is a beautiful grove where my knowledge of you lives. When I am a stranger in a large city I like to sleep in different rooms, eat in different places, walk through unknown streets, and watch the unknown people who pass. I love to be the solitary traveler !  Imagination sees the complete reality, - it is where past, present and future meet... Imagination is limited neither to the reality which is apparent - nor to one place. It lives everywhere. It is at a center and feels the vibrations of all the circles within which east and west are virtually included. Imagination is the life of mental freedom. It realizes what everything is in its many aspects ... Imagination does not uplift: we don't want to be uplifted, we want to be more completely aware. I want to be alive to all the life that is in me now, to know each moment to the uttermost.  What is there in a storm that moves me so ? Why am I so much better and stronger and more certain of life when a storm is passing ? I do not know, and yet I love a storm more, far more, than anything in nature.  The most wonderful thing is that you and I are always walking together, hand in hand, in a strangely beautiful world, unknown to other people. We both stretch one hand to receive from Life - and Life is generous indeed.  If I can open a new corner in a man's own heart to him

I have not lived in vain. Life itself is the thing, not joy or pain or happiness or unhappiness. To hate is as good as to love - an enemy may be as good as a friend. Live for yourself - live your life. Then you are most truly the friend of man. - I am different every day - and when I am eighty, I shall still be experimenting and changing. Work that I have done no longer concerns me - it is past. I have too much on hand in life itself.  His love is as restful as Nature itself. He has no standard for you to conform to, no choice about you, but is simply with your reality, just as Nature is. You are real, so is he: the two realities love each other - voila! A man can be free without being great, but no man can be great without being free. A true hermit goes to the wilderness to find - not to lose himself.

I often picture myself living on a mountain top, in the most stormy country (not the coldest) in the world. Is there such a place ? If there is I shall go to it someday and turn my heart into pictures and poems. But now I can put myself in your hands. You can put yourself in another person's hands when he knows what you are doing and as respect for it and loves it. He gives you your freedom. What is poetry ? An extension of vision - and music is an extension of hearing.  

An expression of that sacred desire to find this world and behold it naked; and that is the soul of the poetry of Life. Poets are not merely those who write poetry, but those whose hearts are full of the spirit of life.

What the soul knows is often unknown to the man who has a soul. We are infinitely more than we think.  When the hand of Life is heavy and night songless, it is the time for love and trust. And how light the hand life becomes and how songful the night, when one is loving and trusting all.

Sometimes you have not even begun to speak - and I am at the end of what you are saying. Knowledge is life with wings. If I accept the sunshine and warmth I must also accept the thunder and lightning.  Follow your heart. Your heart is the right guide in everything big. Mine is so limited. What you want to do is determined by that divine element that is in each of us. That deepest thing, that recognition, that knowledge, that sense of kinship began the first time I saw you, and it is the same now - only a thousand times deeper and tenderer. I shall love you to eternity. I loved you long before we met in this flesh. I knew that when I first saw you. It was destiny. We are together like this and nothing can shake us apart.

Demonstration of love are small, compared with the great thing that is back of them. We are expression of earth, and of life - not separate individuals only. We cannot get enough away from the earth to see the earth and ourselves as separates. We move with its great movements and our growth is part of its great growth. The relation between you and me is the most beautiful thing in my life. It is the most wonderful thing that I have known in any life. It is eternal. I am so happy in your happiness. To you happiness is a form of freedom, and of all the people I know you should be the freest. Surely you have earned this happiness and this freedom. Life cannot be but kind and sweet to you. You have been so sweet and kind to life.  Among intelligent people the surest basis for marriage is friendship - the sharing of real interests- the ability to fight out ideas together and understand each other's thoughts and dreams. What difference does it make, whether you live in a big city or in a community of homes ? The real life is within.

Marriage doesn't give one any rights in another person except such rights that a person gives - nor any freedom except the freedom which that person gives. The trees were budding, the birds were singing - the

grass was wet - the whole earth was shining. And suddenly I was the trees and the flowers and the birds and the grass - and there was no I at all.  No human relation gives one possession in another - every two souls are absolutely different. In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone.              What-to-Love is a fundamental human problem. And if we have this solution - Love what may Be- we see that this is the way Reality loves - and that there is no other loving that lasts or understands.

If your knowledge teaches you not the value of things, and frees you not from the bondage to matter, you shall never come near the throne of Truth.

Spiritual awakening is the most essential thing in man's life, and it is the sole purpose of being. Is not civilization, in all its tragic forms, a supreme motive for spiritual awakening?

The Americans are a mighty people who never give up or get tired or sleep or dream. If these people hate someone, they will kill him by negligence, and if they like or love a person, they will shower him with affection.

Man is like the foam of the sea that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives blown away by Death.

I am indeed a fanatic and I am inclined toward destruction as well as construction. There is hatred in my heart for that which my detractors sanctify and love for that which they reject. And if I could uproot certain customs, beliefs, and traditions of the people, I would do so without hesitation. When they said my books were poison, they were speaking truth about themselves, for what I say is poison to them. But they falsified when they said I mix honey into it, for I apply the poison full strength and pour it from transparent glass. Those who call me an idealist becalmed in clouds are the very ones who turn away from the transparent glass they call poison, knowing that their stomachs cannot digest it. The soul does not see anything in life save that which is in the soul itself. It does not believe except in its own private event, and when it experiences something, the outcome becomes a part of it.

Despair is an ebb for every flow in the heart; it's a mute affection.

Prayer is the song of the heart. It reaches the ear of God even if it is mingled with the cry and the tumult of a thousand men.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course.

All around me are dwarfs who see giants emerging and the dwarfs croak like frogs; “The world has returned to savagery. What science and education have created is being destroyed by the new primitives. We are now like the prehistoric cave dwellers. Nothing distinguishes us from them except our machines of destruction and our improved techniques of slaughter.” Thus speak those who measure the world’s conscience by their own. They measure the range of all Existence by the tiny span of their individual being. As if the sun did not exist but for their warmth, as if the sea was created for them to wash their feet.

If the spirits of Homer, Virgil, Al-Maary, and Milton had known poetry would become a lapdog of the rich, they would have forsaken a world in which this could occur.

People's creeds come forth, then perish like the shadows in the night.

Not everyone in chains is subdued; at times, a chain is greater than a necklace.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

God created music as a common language for all men. It inspires the poets, the composers and the architects. It lures us to search our souls for the meaning of the mysteries described in ancient books. Darkness may hide the trees and the flowers from the eyes but it cannot hide love from the soul.

We live in an era whose humblest men are becoming greater than the greatest men of preceding ages. What once preoccupied our minds is now of no consequence. The veil of indifference covers it. The beautiful dreams that once hovered in our consciousness have been dispersed like mist. In their place giants moving like tempests, raging like seas, breathing like volcanoes. What destiny will the giants bring the world at the end of their struggles?..What will be destiny of your country and mine? Which giant shall seize the mountains and valleys that produced us and reared us and made us men and women before the face of the sun? Which one of you people does not ponder day and night on the fate of the world under the rules of the giants intoxicated with the tears of widows and orphans

Men, even if they are born free, will remain slaves of strict laws enacted by their forefathers; and the firmament, which we imagine as unchanging, is the yielding of today to the will of tomorrow and submission of yesterday to the will of today.

For the soul is our house; our eyes its windows; and our words its messengers.

Eternal wisdom often speaks to him in a mysterious language; Soul and Nature converse together, while Man stands speechless and bewildered.

Why must Man destroy what Nature has built?

The gifts which derive from justice are greater than those that spring from charity.

Life is a darkness which ends as in the sunburst of the day.

Man has worshipped his own self since the beginning, calling that self by appropriate titles, until now, when he employs the word “God” to mean that same self.

Only those return to Eternity, who on earth seek out eternity.

He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth, and duty.

Man's eye is a magnifier; it shows him the earth much larger than it is.

Life is naked. A nude body is the truest and noblest symbol of life.

Too slow is our march toward spiritual elevation, because we make so little use of youth’s ardor.

That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness, will appear tomorrow as an essential link in the complete chain of Man.

The subtlest beauties in our life are unseen and unheard.

Truth calls to us, drawn by the innocent laughter of a child, or the kiss of a loved one; but we close the doors of affection in her face and deal with her as with an enemy.`

I am a poet who composes what life proses, and who proses what life composes.

Man lives in the shadow of laws and customs which he made and fashioned for himself, but the birds live according to the same free Eternal Law which causes the earth to pursue its mighty path about the sun...If you place the belief in your own words you should leave civilization and its corrupt laws and traditions, and live like the birds in a place empty of all things except the magnificent law of heaven and earth.

Believing is a fine thing, but placing those beliefs into execution is a test of strength. Many are those who talk like the roar of the sea, but their lives are shallow and stagnant, like the rotting marshes. Many are those who lift their heads above the mountain tops, but their spirits remain dormant in the obscurity of the caverns.

No, my brother, I did not seek solitude for religious purposes, but solely to avoid the people and their laws, their teachings and their traditions, their ideas and their clamor and their wailing. I sought solitude in order to keep from seeing the faces of men who sell themselves and buy with the same price that which is lower than they are, spiritually and materially. I sought solitude in order that I might not encounter the women who walk proudly, with one thousand smiles upon their lips, while in the depths of their thousands of hearts there is but one purpose. I sought solitude in order to conceal myself from those self-satisfied individuals who see the specter of knowledge in their dreams and believe that they have attained their goal. I fled from society to

avoid those who see but the phantom of truth in their awakening, and shout to the world that they have acquired completely the essence of truth. I deserted the world and sought solitude because I became tired of rendering courtesy to those multitudes who believe that humility is a sort of weakness, and mercy a kind of cowardice, and snobbery a form of strength. I sought solitude because my soul wearied of association with those who believe sincerely that the sun and moon and stars rise save from their coffers, and do not set except in their gardens. I ran from the office-seekers who shatter the earthly fate of the people while throwing into their eyes the golden dust and filling their ears with the sounds of meaningless talk. I departed from the ministers who do not live according to their sermons, and who demand of the people that which they do not solicit of themselves. I sought solitude because I never obtained kindness from a human unless I paid the full price with my heart. I sought solitude because I loathe the great and terrible institution which people call civilization – that symmetrical monstrosity erected upon the perpetual misery of human kinds. I sought solitude for in it there is a full life for the spirit and for the heart and for the body. I found the endless prairies where the light of the sun rests, and where the flowers breathe their fragrance into space, and where the streams sing their way to the sea. I discovered the mountains where I found the fresh awakening of Spring, and the colorful longing of Summer, and the rich songs of Autumn, and the beautiful mystery of Winter. I came to this far corner of God’s domain for I hungered to learn the secrets of the Universe, and approach close to the thrown of God.

Yes, civilization is vanity and all in it is vanity...Inventions and discoveries are but amusement and comfort for the body when it is tired and weary. The conquest of distance and the victory over the seas are but false fruit which do not satisfy the soul, nor nourish the heart, neither lift the spirit, for they are afar from nature. And those structures and theories which man drags, and he rejoices with their glittering reflections and ringing sounds. They are strong cages whose bars man commenced fabricating ages ago, unaware that he was building from the inside, and that he would soon become his own prisoner to eternity. Yes, vain are the deeds of man, and vain are his purposes, and all is vanity upon the earth.

For this is the law of mariners and the sea: If you would freedom, you must needs turn to mist. The formless is forever seeking form, even as the countless nebulae would become suns and moons; and we who have sought much and return now to this isle, rigid molds, we must become mist once more and learn of the beginning. And what is there that shall live and rise unto the heights except it be broken unto passion and freedom? Forever shall we be in quest of the shores, that we may sing and be heard. But what of the wave that breaks where no ear shall hear? It is the unheard in us that nurses our deeper sorrow. Yet it is also the unheard which carves our soul to form and fashion our destiny.

There are moments that hold aeons of separation. Yet parting is naught but an exhaustion of the mind.

Life is older than all things living; even as beauty was winged ere the beautiful was born on earth, and even as truth was truth ere it was uttered.

Life sings in our silences, and dreams in our slumber. Even when we are beaten and low, Life is enthroned and high. And when we weep, Life smiles upon the day, and is free even when we drag our chains.

Oftentimes we call Life bitter names, but only when we ourselves are bitter and dark. And we deem her empty and unprofitable, but only when the soul goes wandering in desolate places, and the heart is drunken with over-mindfulness of self.

Life is deep and high and distant; and though only your vast vision can reach even her feet, yet she is near; and though only the breath of your breath reaches her heart, the shadow of your shadow crosses her face, and the echo of your faintest cry becomes a spring and an autumn in her breast.

And Life is veiled and hidden, even as your greater self is hidden and veiled. Yet when Life speaks, all the winds become words; and when she speaks again, the smiles upon your lips and the tears in your eyes turn also into words. When she sings, the deaf hear and are held; and when she comes walking, the sightless behold her and are amazed and follow her in wonder and astonishment.

What say you of God, and who is He in very truth…Think now, my comrades and beloved, of a heart that

contains all your hearts, a love that encompasses all your loves, a spirit that envelops all your spirits, a voice enfolding all your voices, and a silence deeper than all your silences, and timeless.

We live upon one another according to the law, ancient and timeless. Let us live thus in loving-kindness. We seek one another in our aloneness, and we walk the road when we have no hearth to sit beside.

We are all parasites. We who labor to turn the sod into pulsing life are not above those who receive life directly from the sod without knowing the sod.

Between your right hand that gives and your left hand that receives there is a great space. Only by deeming them both giving and receiving can you bring them into spacelessness, for it is only in knowing that you have naught to give and naught to receive that you can overcome space.

Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

Art must be a direct communication between the artist’s imagination and that of the looker. For that reason, I avoid, so much as possible, busying the looker’s eye with too many details in order that his imagination may roam wide and far. As to the physical molds, art is forced to create for expressing itself; they must be beautiful molds. Otherwise, art defeats its purpose.

Poets are unhappy people, for, no matter how high their spirits reach, they will still be enclosed in an envelope of tears.

Whoever would be a teacher of men let him begin by teaching himself before teaching others; and let him teach by example before teaching by word. For he who teaches himself and rectifies his own ways is more deserving of respect and reverence than he who would teach others and rectify their ways.

Most religions speak of God in the masculine gender. To me He is as much a mother as He is a Father. He is both the father and the mother in one; and Woman is the God-Mother. The God-Father may be reached through the mind or the imagination. But the God-Mother can be reached through the heart only – through love. And Love is that holy wine which the gods distill from their hearts and pour into the hearts of men. Those who only taste it pure and divine whose hearts have been cleansed of all the animal lusts. For clean hearts to be drunk with love is to be drunk with God. Those, on the other hand, who drink it mixed with the wines of earthly passions taste but the orgies of devils in Hell.

With one leap it (the imagination) would reach the core of life, divest it of all (excrescences), then burn these excrescences and fling their ashes into the eyes of those who brought them into being. So must all imaginations be.

Some think the business of art to be a mere intimation of nature. But Nature is far too great and too subtle to be successfully imitated. No artist can ever reproduce even the least of Nature's surpassing creations and miracles. Besides, what profit is there in imitating Nature when she is so open and accessible to all who see and hear? The business of art is rather to understand Nature and to reveal her meanings to those unable to understand. It is to convey the soul of a tree rather than to produce a fruitful likeness of a tree. It is to reveal the conscience of the sea, not to portray so many foaming waves or so much blue water. The

mission of art is to bring out the unfamiliar from the most familiar.

Is it really God that created Man, or is it the opposite? Imagination is the only creator, its nearest and clearest manifestation is Art; yes, art is life, life is art; all else is trite and empty in comparision. Is it not true, that every time we draw Beauty we approach a step nearer to Beauty? And every time we write the Truth we become one with it? Or do you propose to muzzle poets and artists? Is not self-expression a deeply seated need in the human soul?

Beauty is that harmony between joy and sorrow which begins in our holy of holies and ends beyond the scope of our imagination.

Madness is the first step towards unselfishness. Be mad and tell us what is behind the veil of “sanity.” The purpose of life is to bring us closer to those secrets, and madness is the only means.

Pain is an unseen and powerful hand that breaks the skin of the stone in order to extract the pulp.

Life is like the seasons of the year.  The sorrowful Autumn comes after the joyful Summer, and the raging Winter comes behind the sad Autumn, and the beautiful Spring appears after the passing of the awful Winter.  Will the Spring of our life ever return so we may be happy again with the trees, smiling with the flowers, running with the brooks, and singing with the birds....  I feel that life is a sort of debt and payment.  It

gives us today in order to take from us tomorrow.  Then it gives us again and takes from us anew until we get tired of the giving and receiving and surrender to the final sleep.

The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves. I am one of those who remembers such places regardless of distance or time. I do not let one single phantom disappear with the cloud, and it is my everlasting remembrance of the past that causes my sorrow sometimes. But if I had to choose between joy and sorrow, I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the whole world.

Human society has yielded for seventy centuries to corrupted laws until it cannot understand the meaning of superior and eternal laws…Spiritual disease is inherited from one generation to another until it becomes a part of the people, who look upon it, not as a disease, but as a natural gift, showered by God on Adam. If these people found someone free from the germs of this disease, they would think of him with shame and disgrace.

Those whom Love has not chosen as followers do not hear when Love calls.

Love that is cleansed by tears will remain eternally pure and beautiful.

Love that comes between the naivete and awakening of

youth satisfies itself with possessing, and grows with embraces. But Love which is born in the firmament's lap and has descended with the night's secrets is not contented with anything but Eternity and immortality; it does not stand reverently before anything except deity.

Every beauty and greatness in this world is created by a single thought or emotion inside a man. Every thing we see today, made by past generations, was, before its appearance, a thought in the mind of a man or an impulse in the heart of a woman. The revolutions that shed so much blood and turned men's minds toward liberty were the idea of one man who lived in the midst of thousands of men. The devastating wars which destroyed empires were a thought that existed in the mind of an individual. The supreme teachings that changed the course of humanity were the ideas of a man whose genius separated him from an environment.

It is said that unsophistication makes a man empty and that emptiness makes him carefree. It may be true among those who were born dead and those who exist like frozen corpses; but the sensitive boy who feels much and knows little is the most unfortunate creature under the sun, because he is torn by two forces. The first force elevates him and shows him the beauty of existence through a cloud of dreams; the second ties him down to the earth and fills his eyes with dust and overpowers him with fears and darkness.

Despair weakens our sight and close our ears. We can see nothing but specters of doom, and can hear only

the beating of our agitated hearts.

Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course.

Did God give us the breath of life to place it under death’s feet? Did He give us liberty to make it a shadow for slavery? He who extinguishes his spirit's fire with his own hands is an infidel in the eyes of Heaven, for Heaven set the fire that burns in our spirits. He who does not rebel against oppression is doing himself injustice.

A look which reveals inward stress adds more beauty to the face, no matter how much tragedy and pains it bespeaks; but the face which, in silence, does not announce hidden mysteries is not beautiful, regardless of the symmetry of its features. The sorrowful spirit finds relaxation in solitude. It abhors people, as a wounded deer deserts the herd and lives in a cave until it is healed or dead.

Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation.

He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.

Only our spirits can understand beauty, or live and

grow with it. It puzzles our minds; we are unable to describe it in words; it is a sensation that our eyes cannot see, derived from both the one who observes and the one who is looked upon. Real beauty is a ray which emanates from the holy of holies of the spirit, and illuminates the body, as life comes from the depths of the earth, and gives color and scent to a flower. This strange generation exists between sleeping and waking. It holds in its hands the soil of the past and the seeds of the future. The heart’s affections are divided like the branches of the cedar tree; if the tree loses one strong branch, it will suffer but it does not die. It will pour all its vitality into the next branch so that it will grow and fill the empty place.

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 in years or even generations.

The appearance of things changes according to the emotions, and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of seasons There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine.

I use hate as a weapon to defend myself; had I been strong, I would never have needed that kind of weapon.

Hell is not in torture; Hell is in an empty heart.

Paradise is not in repentance; Paradise is in the pure heart.

Wisdom is not in words; wisdom is meaning within words.

Why do you live? Death is the only rest for the wretched.

Life is determination in youth, strife in manhood, and wisdom in maturity.

And what is it to be a good citizen? It is to acknowledge the other person's rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your own. It is to be free in word and deed, but it is also to know that your freedom is subject to the other person's freedom. It is to create the useful and beautiful with your own hands, and to admire what others have created in love and with faith. It is to produce by labor and only by labor. and to spend less than you have produced that your children may not be dependent upon the state for support when you are no more.

When you tell your trouble to your neighbor you present him with a part of your heart. If he possess a great soul, he thanks you; if he possesses a small one, he belittles you.

Conceal your passion; your sickness is also your medicine because love to the soul is as wine in a glass - what you see is liquid, what his hidden is its spirit…

Life is not only a merriment; life is desire and determination.

Learning nourishes the seed but it gives you no seed of its own.

People are saying that I am the enemy of just laws, of family ties and old tradition. Those people are telling the truth. I do not love man-made laws…I love the sacred and spiritual kindness which should be the source of every law upon the earth, for kindness is the shadow of God in man.

What is it to be a good citizen? It is to acknowledge the other person’s rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your own. It is to be free in word and deed, but it is also to know that your freedom is subject to the other person’s freedom. It is to create the useful and the beautiful with your own hands and to admire what others have created in love and with faith. It is to produce by labor and only by labor and to spend less that you have produced that your children may not be dependent upon the state for support when you are no more.

Progress is not merely improving the past; it is moving forward the future.

The earth breathes, we live; it pauses in breath, we die.

Man's eye is a magnifier; it shows him the earth much larger than it is.

I abstain from the people who consider insolence, bravery, and tenderness cowardice. And I abstain from those who consider chatter wisdom and silence ignorance.

They tell me: If you see a slave sleeping, do not wake him lest he be dreaming of freedom. I tell them: If you see a slave sleeping, wake him and explain to him freedom.

Contradiction is a lower degree of intelligence.

Bravery is a volcano; the seed of wavering does not grow on its crater.

The greater your joy or your sorrow, the smaller the world in your eyes.

I use hate as a weapon to defend myself; had I been strong, I would never have needed that kind of weapon.

There are among the people murderers who have never committed murder, thieves who have never stolen and liars who have spoken nothing but the truth.

Life is a darkness which ends as in the sunburst of the day.

It were wiser to speak less of God, whom we cannot understand, and more of each other, whom we may understand. Yet I would have you know that we are the

breath and the fragrance of God. We are God, in leaf, in flower, and oftentimes in fruit.

There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine.

Perfection is not for the pure of soul; there may be virtue in sin.

Woe to the nation that receives her conquerors beating the drums. Woe to the nation that hates oppression in her sleep and accepts it in her awakening. Woe to the nation that raises her voice only behind a coffin and prides itself only in the cemetery. Woe to a nation that does not revolt until her neck is placed on the scaffold.

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.

I use hate as a weapon to defend myself; had I been strong, I would never have needed that kind of weapon. Art is one step away from the visibly known toward the unknown. Greatness is not in exalted position; greatness is for he who refuses position.

And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn?

Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who

can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."... And with a great voice he said: 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. And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

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. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant; and then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. 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 ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh,

but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God." And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: to melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; to rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?" And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.But 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.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children." And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the

bow that is stable.

Then said a rich man, "Speak to us of Giving." And he answered: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city? And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; they give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; and to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving and is there aught you would withhold? All you have shall some day be given;

therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.'

You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving." The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving? And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed? See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings; for to be over mindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.

Then a ploughman said, "Speak to us of Work." And he answered, saying: You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. 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.

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?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, and in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life, and to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love;and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, and to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

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. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow." And he answered: 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. Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? 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.

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. Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced. When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.

But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed. Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast. It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye. You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down. You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living. And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing. 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.

Like the ocean is your god-self; it remains for ever undefiled. And like the ether it lifts but the winged. Even like the sun is your god-self; It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent. But your god-self does not dwell alone in your being. Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man, but a shapeless pygmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening. And of the man in you would I now speak. For it is he and not your god-self nor the pygmy in the mist, that knows crime

and the punishment of crime.

Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all. Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self. You are the way and the wayfarers. And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.

And this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts: The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder, And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed. The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked, And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon. Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured, And still more often the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed. You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked; For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together. And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.

And you judges who would be just, what judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit? What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit? And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor, yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds? Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve? Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty. Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves. And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light? Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pygmy-self and the day of his god-self, and that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

Then a lawyer said, "But what of our Laws, master?" And he answered: You delight in laying down laws, yet you delight more in breaking them. Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter. But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore, and when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you.

But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and

man-made laws are not sand-towers, but to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness? What of the cripple who hates dancers? What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things? What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless? And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters law-breakers? 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. And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows? And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth? But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you? You who travel with the wind, what weather vane shall direct your course? What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door? What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains? And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path?

And an orator said, "Speak to us of Freedom." And he answered: At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them. Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff. And my heart bled within me;

for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound. 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?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes. And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them. And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

And the priestess spoke again and said: "Speak to us of Reason and Passion." And he answered saying: Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite. Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord

and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. 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 live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house. Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason." And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion." 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.

And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain." And he

said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; and you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

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 tranquillity: 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.

And a man said, "Speak to us of Self-Knowledge." And he answered, saying: Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge. You would know in words that which you have always know in thought. You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

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

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship." Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving and he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And then a scholar said, "Speak of Talking." And he answered, saying: 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. For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words many indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

Let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

And one of the elders of the city said, "Speak to us of Good and Evil." And he answered: Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil. For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil. For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house. And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself. Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself. For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast. Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance." For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty." Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide? And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

All these things have you said of beauty. Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied, and beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

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 a mirror. But you are eternity and your are the mirror.

And an old priest said, "Speak to us of Religion." And

he said: Have I spoken this day of aught else? Is not religion all deeds and all reflection, and that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom? Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations? Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?" All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self. 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. And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage. The freest song comes not through bars and wires. And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. Whenever you enter into it take with you your all. Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute, the things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight. For in reverie you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures. And take with you all men: For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. You

shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

Then Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death." And he said: You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity. Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is 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 mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Man's needs change, but not his love, nor his desire that his love should satisfy his needs.

And a good deed that calls itself by tender names becomes the parent to a curse.

And it is with this belief and this knowledge that I say, You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind. It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety, but a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether. If this be vague words, then seek not to clear them. Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end, and I fain would have you remember me as a beginning. Life, and all that lives, is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal. And who knows but a crystal is mist in decay?

Kahlil Gibran: Wings of ThoughtArt arises when the secret vision of the artist and the

manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

Faith is an oasis in the heart which can never be

reached by the caravan of thinking.

The truly religious man does not embrace a religion; and he who embraces one has no religion.

The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.

Jesus, the son of manDoubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin

brother.

Love is a gracious host to his guests though to the unbidden his house is a mirage and a mockery.

Love is a sacred mystery. To those who love, it remains forever wordless but to those who do not love, it may be but a heartless jest. Love is forever shy of beauty, yet beauty shall forever be pursued by love. The first thought of God was an angel. The first word of God was a man.

A fact is a truth unsexed.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too self-ful to seek other than itself.

Waiting is the hoofs of time.

We measure time according to the movement of

countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets. Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place and the same time?

Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death.

Space is not space between the earth and the sun to one who looks down from the windows of the Milky Way.

There is neither religion nor science beyond beauty.

Humanity is a river of light running from the ex-eternity to eternity.

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth? Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain. There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.

Love which is not always springing is always dying.

Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.

Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.

Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

Love is a word of light, written by a hand of light, upon a page of light.

Every thought I have imprisoned in expression I must free by my deeds.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

Was the love of Judas' mother of her son less than the love of Mary for Jesus?

Man is two men; one is awake in darkness, the other is asleep in light.

I long for eternity because there I shall meet my unwritten poems and my unpainted pictures.

Art is a step from nature toward the Infinite.

A work of art is a mist carved into an image.

Even the hands that make crowns of thorns are better than idle hands.

The truly good is he who is one with all those who are deemed bad.

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

Remembrance is a form of meeting.

Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.

The tribune of humanity is in its silent heart, never its talkative mind.

Government is an agreement between you and myself. You and myself are often wrong.

Crime is either another name of need or an aspect of a disease.

Is there a greater fault than being conscious of the other person's faults?

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

It was but yesterday I thought myself a fragment quivering without rhythm in the sphere of life. Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me."

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

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

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.

They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.

An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

The significance of a man is not in what he attains but rather in what he longs to attain.

I saw philosophers in the market-place carrying their heads in baskets, and crying aloud, "Wisdom! Wisdom for sale!" Poor philosophers! They must needs sell their heads to feed their hearts. Said a philosopher to a street sweeper, "I pity you. Yours is a hard and dirty task." And the street sweeper said, "Thank you, sir. But tell me what is your task?" And the philosopher answered saying, "I study man's mind, his deeds and

his desires." Then the street sweeper went on with his sweeping and said with a smile, "I pity you too."

He who listens to truth is not less than he who utters truth. I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.

Paradise is there, behind that door, in the next room; but I have lost the key. Perhaps I have only mislaid it.

You are blind and I am deaf and dumb, so let us touch hands and understand.

The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain. Give me an ear and I will give you a voice.

Our mind is a sponge; our heart is a stream.

When you long for blessings that you may not name, and when you grieve knowing not the cause, then indeed you are growing with all things that grow, and rising toward your greater self.

When one is drunk with a vision, he deems his faint expression of it the very wine.

You drink wine that you may be intoxicated; and I drink that it may sober me from that other wine.

When my cup is empty I resign myself to its

emptiness; but when it is half full I resent its half-fulness.

The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you.Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.

Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.

A sense of humor is a sense of proportion.

My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.

When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.

A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.

The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.

The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.

When two women talk they say nothing; when one woman speaks she reveals all of life.

Frogs may bellow louder than bulls, but they cannot drag the plough in the field not turn the wheel of the winepress, and of their skins you cannot make shoes.

Only the dumb envy the talkative.

If winter should say, "Spring is in my heart," who would believe winter?

Every seed is a longing.

Should you really open your eyes and see, you would behold your image in all images.And should you open your ears and listen, you would hear your own voice in all voices.

It takes two of us to discover truth: one to utter it and one to understand it.

Though the wave of words is forever upon us, yet our depth is forever silent.

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

Now let us play hide and seek. Should you hide in my heart it would not be difficult to find you. But should you hide behind your own shell, then it would be useless for anyone to seek you. A woman may veil her face with a smile.

How noble is the sad heart who would sing a joyous song with joyous hearts.

He who would understand a woman, or dissect genius, or solve the mystery of silence is the very man who would wake from a beautiful dream to sit at a breakfast table.

I would walk with all those who walk. I would not

stand still to watch the procession passing by.

You owe more than gold to him who serves you. Give him of your heart or serve him.

Nay, we have not lived in vain. Have they not built towers of our bones?

Let us not be particular and sectional. The poet's mind and the scorpion's tail rise in glory from the same earth.

Every dragon gives birth to a St. George who slays it.

Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper that we may record our emptiness.

Should you care to write (and only the saints know why you should) you must needs have knowledge and art and music -- the knowledge of the music of words, the art of being artless, and the magic of loving your readers.

They dip their pens in our hearts and think they are inspired.

Should a tree write its autobiography it would not be unlike the history of a race.

If I were to choose between the power of writing a poem and the ecstasy of a poem unwritten, I would choose the ecstasy. It is better poetry.But you and all my neighbors agree that I always choose badly.

Poetry is not an opinion expressed. It is a song that rises from a bleeding wound or a smiling mouth.

Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with knowledge of their timelessness.

A poet is a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his palace trying to fashion an image out of the ashes.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

In vain shall a poet seek the mother of the songs of his heart.

Once I said to a poet, "We shall not know your worth until you die." And he answered saying, "Yes, death is always the revealer. And if indeed you would know my worth it is that I have more in my heart than upon my tongue and more in my desire than in my hand."

If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have an audience.

Poetry is wisdom that enchants the heart. Wisdom is poetry that sings in the mind.

If we could enchant man's heart and at the same time sing in his mind, then in truth he would live in the shadow of God.

Inspiration will always sing; inspiration will never explain.

We often sing lullabies to our children that we ourselves may sleep.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry.

A great singer is he who sings our silences.

How can you sing if your mouth be filled with food?How shall your hand be raised in blessing if it is filled with gold?

They say the nightingale pierces his bosom with a thorn when he sings his love song. So do we all. How else should we sing?

Genius is but a robin's song at the beginning of a slow spring.

Even the most winged spirit cannot escape physical necessity.

A madman is not less a musician than you or myself; only the instrument on which he plays is a little out of tune.

The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips of her child.

No longing remains unfulfilled.

I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us.

Your other self is always sorry for you. But your other self grows on sorrow; so all is well.

There is no struggle of soul and body except in the minds of those whose souls are asleep and whose bodies are out of tune.

When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.

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

Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower. Dream your dream to the sky and it will bring you your beloved.

The devil died the very day you were born.Now you do not have to go through hell to meet an angel.

Many a woman borrows a man's heart; very few could possess it.

If you would possess you must not claim.

When a man's hand touches the hand of a woman they both touch the heart of eternity.

Every man loves two women; the one is the creation of his imagination, and the other is not yet born.

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

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

If you do not understand your friend under all conditions you will never understand him.

Your most radiant garment is of the other person's weaving; You most savory meal is that which you eat at the other person's table; Your most comfortable bed is in the other person's house. Now tell me, how can you separate yourself from the other person?

Your mind and my heart will never agree until your mind ceases to live in numbers and my heart in the mist.

We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.

How shall my heart be unsealed unless it be broken?

Only great sorrow or great joy can reveal your truth.If you would be revealed you must either dance naked in the sun, or carry your cross.

Should nature heed what we say of contentment no river would seek the sea, and no winter would turn to Spring. Should she heed all we say of thrift, how many of us would be breathing this air?

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

You are free before the sun of the day, and free before

the stars of the night; And you are free when there is no sun and no moon and no star. You are even free when you close your eyes upon all there is. But you are a slave to him whom you love because you love him, And a slave to him who loves you because he loves you.

We are all beggars at the gate of the temple, and each one of us receives his share of the bounty of the King when he enters the temple, and when he goes out.But we are all jealous of one another, which is another way of belittling the King.

You cannot consume beyond your appetite. The other half of the loaf belongs to the other person, and there should remain a little bread for the chance guest.

If it were not for your guests all houses would be graves.

Said a gracious wolf to a simple sheep, "Will you not honor our house with a visit?"And the sheep answered, "We would have been honored to visit your house if it were not in your stomach."

I stopped my guest on the threshold and said, "Nay, wipe not your feet as you enter, but as you go out."

Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is in giving me that which you need more than I do.

You are indeed charitable when you give, and while giving, turn your face away so that you may not see

the shyness of the receiver.

The difference between the richest man and the poorest is but a day of hunger and an hour of thirst.

We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.

I too am visited by angels and devils, but I get rid of them. When it is an angel I pray an old prayer, and he is bored; When it is a devil I commit an old sin, and he passes me by.

After all this is not a bad prison; but I do not like this wall between my cell and the next prisoner's cell;Yet I assure you that I do not wish to reproach the warder not the Builder of the prison.

Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.

Trickery succeeds sometimes, but it always commits suicide.

You are truly a forgiver when you forgive murderers who never spill blood, thieves who never steal, and liars who utter no falsehood.

He who can put his finger upon that which divides good from evil is he who can touch the very hem of the garment of God.

If your heart is a volcano how shall you expect flowers to bloom in your hands?

A strange form of self-indulgence! There are times when I would be wronged and cheated, that I may laugh at the expense of those who think I do not know I am being wronged and cheated.

What shall I say of him who is the pursuer playing the part of the pursued?

Let him who wipes his soiled hands with your garment take your garment. He may need it again; surely you would not.

It is a pity that money-changers cannot be good gardeners.

Please do not whitewash your inherent faults with your acquired virtues. I would have the faults; they are like mine own.

How often have I attributed to myself crimes I have never committed, so that the other person may feel comfortable in my presence.

Even the masks of life are masks of deeper mystery.

You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself. Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?

The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.

Only an idiot and a genius break man-made laws; and they are the nearest to the heart of God.

It is only when you are pursued that you become swift.

I have no enemies, O God, but if I am to have an enemy, let his strength be equal to mine, that truth alone may be the victor.

You will be quite friendly with your enemy when you both die.

Perhaps a man may commit suicide in self-defense.

If all they say of good and evil were true, then my life is but one long crime.

Pity is but half justice.

The only one who has been unjust to me is the one to whose brother I have been unjust.

When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison."And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful."

Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I would not have used such a weapon.

How stupid is he who would patch the hatred in his eyes with the smile of his lips.

Only those beneath me can envy or hate me.I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one. Only those above me can praise or belittle me.

I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.

Your saying to me, "I do not understand you," is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve. How mean am I when life gives me gold and I give you silver, and yet I deem myself generous.

When you reach the heart of life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the prophet.

Strange that you should pity the slow-footed and not the slow-minded,And the blind-eyed rather than the blind-hearted.

It is wiser for the lame not to break his crutches upon the head of his enemy.

How blind is he who gives you out of his pocket that he may take out of your heart.

Life is a procession. The slow of foot finds it too swift and he steps out;And the swift of foot finds it too slow and he too steps out.

If there is such a thing as sin some of us commit it backward following our forefathers' footsteps;And some of us commit it forward by overruling our children.

Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights.

Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality. Should we all reveal our virtues we would also laugh for the same cause.

An individual is above man-made laws until he commits a crime against man-made conventions; After that he is neither above anyone nor lower than anyone.

If the other person laughs at you, you can pity him; but if you laugh at him you may never forgive yourself.If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember. In truth the other person is your most sensitive self-given another body.

How heedless you are when you would have men fly with your wings and you cannot even give them a feather.

Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?

It is the honor of the murdered that he is not the murderer.

They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.

They spread before us their riches of gold and silver, of ivory and ebony, and we spread before them our hearts and our spirits.;And yet they deem themselves the hosts and us the guests.

I would not be the least among men with dreams and the desire to fulfill them, rather than the greatest with no dreams and no desires.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

We are all climbing toward the summit of our hearts' desire. Should the other climber steal your sack and your purse and wax fat on the one and heavy on the other, you should pity him; The climbing will be harder for his flesh, and the burden will make his way longer. And should you in your leanness see his flesh puffing upward, help him a step; it will add to your swiftness.

You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge.

I would not listen to a conqueror preaching to the conquered.

The truly free man is he who bears the load of the bond slave patiently.

A thousand years ago my neighbor said to me, "I hate life, for it is naught but a thing of pain." And yesterday I passed by a cemetery and saw life dancing upon his grave.

Strife in nature is but disorder longing for order.

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

Once I spoke of the sea to a brook, and the brook thought me but an imaginative exaggerator; and once I spoke of a brook to the sea, and the sea thought me but a depreciative defamer.

How narrow is the vision that exalts the busyness of the ant above the singing of the grasshopper.

The highest virtue here may be the least in another world.

The deep and the high go to the depth or to the height in a straight line; only the spacious can move in circles.

If it were not for our conception of weights and measures we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun.

A scientist without imagination is a butcher with dull knives and out-worn scales.But what would you, since we are not all vegetarians?

When you sing the hungry hears you with his stomach.

Death is not nearer to the aged than to the new-born; neither is life.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully; otherwise keep silent, for there is a man in our neighborhood who is dying.

Mayhap a funeral among men is a wedding feast among the angels.

A forgotten reality may die and leave in its will seven thousand actualities and facts to be spent in its funeral and the building of a tomb.

In truth we talk only to ourselves, but sometimes we talk loud enough that others may hear us.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

If the Milky Way were not within me how should I have seen it or known it?

Unless I am a physician among physicians they would not believe that I am an astronomer.

Perhaps the sea's definition of a shell is the pearl. Perhaps time's definition of coal is the diamond.

Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light.

A root is a flower that disdains fame.

Every great man I have known had something small in his make-up; and it was that small something which prevented inactivity or madness or suicide.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.

I would not believe that a man is mediocre simply because he kills the criminals and the prophets.

Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness.

Worms will turn; but is it not strange that even elephants will yield?

A disagreement may be the shortest cut between two minds.

I am the flame and I am the dry bush, and one part of me consumes the other part.

We are all seeking the summit of the holy moutain; but shall not our road be shorter if we consider the past a chart and not a guide?

Had I filled myself with all that you know what room should I have for all that you do not know?

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

The silence of the envious is too noisy.

When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.

An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.

If you can see only what light reveals and hear only what sound announces, then in truth you do not see nor do you hear.

You cannot laugh and be unkind at the same time.

The nearest to my heart are a king without a kingdom

and a poor man who does not know how to beg.

Dig anywhere in the earth and you will find a treasure, only you must dig with the faith of a peasant.

Said a hunted fox followed by twenty horsemen and a pack of twenty hounds, "Of course they will kill me. But how poor and how stupid they must be. Surely it would not be worth while for twenty foxes riding on twenty asses and accompanied by twenty wolves to chase and kill one man."

It is the mind in us that yields to the laws made by us, but never the spirit in us.

A traveler am I and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.

I said to Life, "I would hear Death speak." And Life raised her voice a little higher and said, "You hear him now."

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.

Birth and death are the two noblest expressions of bravery.

My friend, you and I shall remain strangers unto life,And unto one another, and each unto himself,Until the day when you shall speak and I shall listenDeeming your voice my own voice;And when I shall stand before youThinking myself standing before a mirror.

They say to me, "Should you know yourself you would know all men." And I say, "Only when I seek all men shall I know myself."

A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.

There lies a green field between the scholar and the poet; should the scholar cross it he becomes a wise man; should the poet cross it, he becomes a prophet.

No man can draw the line between necessities and luxuries. Only the angels can do that, and the angels are wise and wistful. Perhaps the angels are our better thought in space.

He is the true prince who finds his throne in the heart of the dervish.

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

In truth you owe naught to any man. You owe all to all men.

All those who have lived in the past live with us now. Surely none of us would be an ungracious host.

He who longs the most lives the longest.

They say to me, "A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush."But I say, "A bird and a feather in the bush is worth more than ten birds in the hand."

Your seeking after that feather is life with winged feet; nay, it is life itself.

There are only two elements here, beauty and truth; beauty in the hearts of lovers, and truth in the arms of the tillers of the soil.

Great beauty captures me, but a beauty still greater frees me even from itself.

Beauty shines brighter in the heart of him who longs for it than in the eyes of him who sees it.

I admire him who reveals his mind to me; I honor him who unveils his dreams. But why am I shy, and even a little ashamed before him who serves me?

The gifted were once proud in serving princes. Now they claim honor in serving paupers.

The angels know that too many practical men eat their bread with the sweat of the dreamer's brow.

Wit is often a mask. If you could tear it you would find either a genius irritated or cleverness juggling.

The understanding attributes to me understanding and the dull, dullness. I think they are both right.

Only those with secrets in their hearts could divine the secrets in our hearts.

He who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one of the seven gates of Paradise.

When either your joy or your sorrow becomes great the world becomes small.

The bitterest thing in our today's sorrow is the memory of our yesterday's joy.

They say to me, "You must needs choose between the pleasures of this world and the peace of the next world."And I say to them, "I have chosen both the delights of this world and the peace of the next. For I know in my heart that the Supreme Poet wrote but one poem, and it scans perfectly, and it also rhymes perfectly."

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

When you reach your height you shall desire but only for desire; and you shall hunger, for hunger; and you shall thirst for greater thirst.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

Turtles can tell more about roads than hares.

Strange that creatures without backbones have the hardest shells.

The most talkative is the least intelligent, and there is hardly a difference between an orator and an auctioneer.

Be grateful that you do not have to live down the

renown of a father nor the wealth of an uncle.But above all be grateful that no one will have to live down either your renown or your wealth.

Only when a juggler misses catching his ball does he appeal to me.

The envious praises me unknowingly.

Long were you a dream in your mother's sleep, and then she woke to give you birth.

The germ of the race is in your mother's longing.

Some of our children are our justifications and some are but our regrets.

When night comes and you too are dark, lie down and be dark with a will.And when morning comes and you are still dark stand up and say to the day with a will, "I am still dark."It is stupid to play a role with the night and the day.They would both laugh at you.

Behold here is a paradox; the deep and high are nearer to one another than the mid-level to either.

When I stood a clear mirror before you, you gazed into me and saw your image.Then you said, "I love you."But in truth you loved yourself in me.

When you enjoy loving your neighbor it ceases to be a virtue.

You cannot have youth and the knowledge of it at the same time; for youth is too busy living to know, and knowledge is too busy seeking itself to live. You may sit at your window watching the passersby. And watching you may see a nun walking toward your right hand, and a prostitute toward your left hand. And you may say in your innocence, "How noble is the one and how ignoble is the other." But should you close your eyes and listen awhile you would hear a voice whispering in the ether, "One seeks me in prayer, and the other in pain. And in the spirit of each there is a bower for my spirit."

A great man has two hearts; one bleeds and the other forbears.

Should one tell a lie which does not hurt you nor anyone else, why not say in your heart that the house of his facts is too small for his fancies, and he had to leave it for larger space?

Behind every closed door is a mystery sealed with seven seals.

What if trouble should be a new window in the Eastern wall of your house?

You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.

There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.

You are but a fragment of your giant self, a mouth that

seeks bread, and a blind hand that holds the cup for a thirsty mouth.

If you would rise but a cubit above race and country and self you would indeed become godlike. Should you sit upon a cloud you would not see the boundary line between one country and another, nor the boundary stone between a farm and a farm. It is a pity you cannot sit upon a cloud.

It is indeed misery if I stretch an empty hand to men and receive nothing; but it is hopelessness if I stretch a full hand and find none to receive.

Our most sacred tears never seek our eyes.

Every man is the descendant of every king and every slave that ever lived.

There are three miracles of our Brother Jesus not yet recorded in the Book: the first that He was a man like you and me, the second that He had a sense of humour, and the third that He knew He was a conqueror though conquered.

Spirits RebelliousGod does not like to be worshipped by an ignorant man who imitates someone else.

The true light is that which emanates from within man, and reveals the secrets of the heart to the soul, making it happy and contented with life.Truth is like the stars;

it does not appear except from behind obscurity of the night. Truth is like all beautiful things in the world; it does not disclose its desirability except to those who first feel the influence of falsehood. Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

There is no secret in the mystery of life stronger and more beautiful than that attachment which converts the silence of a virgin's spirit into a perpetual awareness that makes a person forget the past, for it kindles fiercely in the heart the sweet and overwhelming hope of the coming future.

Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the goodness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he goes. He who does not see the kingdom of heaven in this life will never see it in the coming life. We came not into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life.

The clergyman erects his temple upon the graves and bones of the devoted worshippers.

Everything on earth lives according to the law of nature, and from that law emerges the glory and joy of liberty; but man is denied this fortune, because he set for the God-given soul a limited and earthly law of his own. He made for himself strict rules. Man built a

narrow and painful prison in which he secluded his affections and desires. He dug out a deep grave in which he buried his heart and its purpose. If an individual, through the dictates of his soul, declares his withdrawal from society and violates the law, his fellow-men will say he is a rebel worthy of exile, or an infamous creature worthy only of execution. Will man remain a slave of self-confinement until the end of the world? Or will he be freed from the passing of time and live in the Spirit for the Spirit? Will Man insist upon staring downward and backward at the earth? Or will he turn his eyes toward the sun so he will not see the shadow of his body amongst the skulls and thorns? Do not be merciful, but be just, for mercy is bestowed upon the guilty criminal, while justice is all that an innocent man requires.

Destiny comes suddenly, bringing concern; she stares at you with horrible eyes and clutches you at the throat with sharp fingers and hurls you to the ground and tramples upon you with ironclad feet; then she laughs and walks away, but later regrets her actions and asks you through good fortune to forgive her. She stretches her silky hand and lifts you high and sings to you the Song of Hope and causes you to lose your cares. She creates in you a new zest for confidence and ambition. If your lot in life is a beautiful bird that you love dearly, you gladly feed to him the seeds of your inner self, and make your heart his cage and your soul his nest. But while you are affectionately admiring him and looking upon him with the eyes of love, he escapes from your hands and flies very high; then he descends and enters into another cage and never comes back to

you. What can you do? Where can you find patience and condolence? How can you revive your hopes and dreams? What power can still your turbulent heart?

To be closer to God, be closer to people.

Where can I find a man governed by reason instead of habits and urges?

If you are poor, shun association with him who measures men with the yardstick of riches. No lower can a man descend than to interpret his dreams into gold and silver.

How hard is the life of him who asks for love and receives passion!

Marriage is either death or life; there is no twixt and between.

It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body.

My proof convinces the ignorant, and the wise man's proof convinces me. But he whose reasoning falls between wisdom and ignorance, I neither can convince him, nor can he convince me.

Some souls are like sponges. You cannot squeeze anything out of them except what they have sucked from you.

If there were two men alike, the world would not be big enough to contain them.

He brings disaster upon his nation who never sows a seed, or lays a brick, or weaves a garment, but makes politics his occupation.

By adornment one acknowledges his ugliness.

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

Truth is the daughter of Inspiration; analysis and debate keep the people away from Truth.

He who forgives you for a sin you have not committed forgives himself for his own crime.

The partition between the sage and the fool is more slender than the spider web.

Some seek pleasure in pain; and some cannot cleanse themselves except with filth.

The fear of hell is hell itself, and the longing for paradise is paradise itself.

We must not forget that there are still cave dwellers; the caves are our hearts.

We may change with the seasons; but the seasons will not change us.

If you choose between two evils, let your choice fall on the obvious rather than the hidden, even though the first appears greater than the second.

The rich claim kinship with those of noble birth; and the nobly-born seek marriages among the rich; and each despises the other.

Most of us hover dubiously between mute rebellion and prattling submission.

The ill-intentioned always fall short of achieving their purpose.

The supreme state of the soul is to obey even that against which the mind rebels. And the lowest state of the mind is to revolt against that which the soul obeys.

The spiritual man is he who has experienced all earthly things and is in revolt against them.

Oh, heart, if the ignorant say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower perishes, but the seeds remain. This is the law of God.

If you wish to see the valleys, climb to the mountain top; if you desire to see the mountain top, rise into the cloud; but if you seek to understand the cloud, close your eyes and think.

Hard is the life for him who desires death but lives on for the sake of his beloved ones. As between the soul and the body there is a bond, so are the body and its environment linked together.

Be not contented with little; he who brings to the springs of life an empty jar will return with two full ones.

He who looks upon us through the eyes of God will see our naked and essential reality.

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

A poet is he who makes you feel, after reading his poem, that his best verses have not yet been composed.

The tyrant calls for sweet wine from sour grapes.

Who among men can stroll on the bottom of the sea as if promenading in a garden?

Do you believe you can comprehend the substances by inquiring about the purposes? Can you tell the flavor of the wine by looking at the wine jug?

Our souls traverse spaces in Life which are not measurable by Time, that invention of man.

He who reveals to himself what his conscience commits a sin. And he also is a sinner who denies himself what his conscience has revealed.

Poetry is the secret of the soul; why babble it away in words?

Poetry is the understanding of the whole. How can you communicate it to him who understands but the part?

Poetry is a flame in the heart, but rhetoric is flakes of snow. How can flame and snow be joined together?

How gravely the glutton counsels the famished to bear the pangs of hunger.

Representative governments were, in the past, the fruits of revolutions; today they are economic consequences.

A feeble nation weakens its strong ones and strengthens the weak ones of a powerful nation.

The secret in singing is found between the vibrations in the singer's voice and the throb in the hearer's heart.

Love is a trembling happiness.

A singer cannot delight you with his singing unless he himself delights to sing.

You progress not through improving what has been done, but reaching toward what has yet to be done.

The truth that needs proof is only half true.

Among the people there are killers who have not yet shed blood, and thieves who have stolen nothing and liars who have so far told the truth.

He is short-sighted who looks only on the path he treads and the wall on which he leans.

Examine your yesterday's ledger and you will find that you are still indebted to people and to life.

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair; but manifestations of strength and

resolution.

The hungry savage picks a fruit from the tree and eats it. The hungry citizen in civilized society buys a fruit from the one who bought it from another who bought it from him who picked it from the tree.

When I planted my pain in the field of patience it bore fruit of happiness.

Art is a step in the known toward the unknown.

Education sows not seeds in you, but makes your seeds grow.

On the scholar who was made of thought and affection, speech was bestowed. On the researcher who was made of speech, a little thought and affection was bestowed.

Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation.

The millstone may break down but the river continues its course to the sea.

Inspiration is in seeing a part of the whole with the part of the whole in you.

Contradiction is the lowest form of intelligence.

The believer is led to doubt justice when he sees the trick of the fox triumph over the justice of the lion.

Fear of the devil is one way of doubting God.

Slaves are the fault of the kings.

The difficulty we meet with in reaching our goal is the shortest path to it.

In the magnifying glass of man's eye the world looks greater than it is.

When the earth exhales it gives birth to us. When it inhales death is our lot.

That which we call intelligence in the mind of some people is but a local inflammation.

Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.

Compulsion is a mirror in which he who looks for long will see his inner self endeavoring to commit suicide.

That which you think is ugly is but the treachery of the outer directed at the inner self.

We are all practical in our own interest and idealists when it concerns others.

I pity him whose lips and tongue writhe with words of praise while his hand is outstretched in beggary.

He is virtuous who does not acquit himself of the people's faults.

To realize that prophecy in the people is like fruit in the tree is to know the unity of life.

History does not repeat itself except in the minds of those who do not know history.

Evil is an unfit creature, laggard in obeying the law of continuity of fitness.

Why do some people scoop from your sea and boast of their rivulet?

He is free who carries the slave's burden with patience.

Beauty in the heart that longs for it is more sublime than in the eyes of him who see it.

Sayings remain meaningless until they are embodied in habits.

The necessity for explanation is a sign of weakness in the text.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

Humanity is divinity divided without and united within.

The creator gives no heed to the critic unless he becomes a barren inventor.

Prosperity comes through two things: exploitation of the earth and distribution of its produce.

The just is close to the people's hearts, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

Poverty is a temporary fault, but excessive wealth is a lasting ailment.

Remembrance is a tripping stone in the path of Hope.

Our worst fault is the preoccupation with the faults of others.

I never speak without error, for my thoughts come from the world of abstraction and my statements from the world of reference.

Poetry is a flash of lightening; it becomes mere composition when it is an arrangement of words.

No one believes the sincere except the honest.

The most useful among the people is he who is distant from the people.

Science and religion are in full accord, but science and faith are in complete discord.

Nursing a patient is a sort of embalming.

If existence had not been better than non-existence, there would have been no being.

I shall cast my jewels to the pigs so that they may swallow them and die either of gluttony or indigestion.

Can one sing whose mouth is full of filth?

When affection withers, it intellectualizes.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.

He who stares at the small and near images will have difficulty in seeing and distinguishing those that are great and remote.

We are all warriors in the battle of Life, but some lead and others follow.

Souls are fires whose ashes are the bodies.

He who conceals his intention behind flowery words of praise is like a woman who seeks to hide her ugliness behind cosmetics.

If I knew the cause of my ignorance, I would be a sage.

The best of men is he who blushes when you praise him and remains silent when you defame him.

The pain that accompanies love, invention, and responsibility also gives delight.

He who requires urging to do a noble act will never accomplish it.

The strong grows in solitude where the weak withers away.

They say if one understands himself, he understands all people. But I say to you, when one loves people, he learns something about himself.

No one has prevented me from doing something who is not himself interested in it.

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.

When man invents a machine, he runs it; then the machine begin to run him, and he becomes the slave of his slave.

The virtue of some of the rich is that they teach us to despise wealth.

Civilization commenced when man first dug the earth and sowed seeds.

Religion began when man discerned the sun's compassion on the seeds which he sowed in the earth.

Art began when man glorified the sun with a hymn of gratitude.

Philosophy began when man ate the produce of the earth and suffered indigestion.

Man's value is in the few things he creates and not in the many possessions he amasses.

There is no true wealth beyond a man's need.

Every nation is responsible for each act of its individuals.

Love knows not its depth till the hour of separation.

Faith perceives Truth sooner than Experience can.

Inhibitions and religious prohibitions do more harm than anarchy.

The nets of the law are devised to catch small criminals only. Feigned modesty is imprudence adorned.

Courage, which is the sixth sense, finds the shortest way to triumph.

Chastity of the body may be miserliness of the spirit.

Keep me safe, Lord, from the tongue of the viper, and of him who fails to obtain the fame he craves.

I never met a conceited man whom I did not find inwardly embarrassed.

We fear death, yet we long for slumber and beautiful dreams.

Some who are too scrupulous to steal your possessions nevertheless see no wrong in tampering with your thoughts.

Our sorrow over the dead may be a sort of jealousy.

The light of stars that were extinguished ages ago still

reaches us. So is it with great men who died centuries ago, still reach us with the radiations of their personality.

The sultan of sultans is he who has gained the love of the pauper.

There is no convenience in our present-day civilization that does not cause discomfort.

Your confidence in the people, and your doubt about them, are closely related to your self-confidence and your self-doubt.

We demand freedom of speech an freedom of press, although we have nothing to say and nothing worth printing.

Strength and tolerance are partners.

Love and emptiness in us are like the sea's ebb and flow.

Poverty hides itself in thought before it surrenders to purses.

Man merely discovers; he never can and never will invent.

Philosophy's work is finding the shortest path between two points.

Would it not be more economical for the government to build asylums for the sane instead of the demented?

The most solid stone in the structure is the lowest one in the foundation.

He is most worthy of praise from whom the people unjustly withhold it.

The truly religious man does not embrace a religion; and he who embraces one has no religion.

Most men with delicate feelings hasten to hurt your feelings lest you precede them and hurt theirs.

The best of men is he who blushes when you praise him and remains silent when you defame him.

The writer who draws his material from a book is like one who borrows money only to lend it.

Distinguish between the gift that is an insult and the gift that is a token of respect.

The one who disagrees is more talked about than the one who agrees.

I never doubted a truth that needed an explanation unless I found myself having to analyze the explanation.

God has placed in each soul an apostle to lead us upon the illumined path. Yet many seek life from without, unaware that it is within them.

In education the life of the mind proceeds gradually from scientific experiments to intellectual theories, to spiritual feelings, and then to God.

We are still busy examining sea shells as if they were all that emerge from the sea of life to the shore of day and night.

The tree that contrives to cheat life by living in the shade withers when it is removed and replanted in the sun.

Languages, governments, and religions are formed from the golden dust that rises from both sides of the road on which man's magnificent life proceeds.

The Spirit of the West is our friend if we accept him, but our enemy if we are possessed by him, our friend if we open our hearts to him, our enemy if we yield him our hearts, our friend if we take from that which suits us, our enemy if we let ourselves be used to suit him.

Exhaustion dooms every nation and every people; it is drowsy agony, death in a sort of slumber. The potter can fashion a wine jug from clay, but nothing out of sand and gravel.

Wailing and lamentation befit those who stand before the throne of life and depart without leaving in its hands a drop of the sweat of their brows or the blood of their hearts.

We devour the bread of charity because we are hungry; it revives, then slays us.

How ugly is affection that lays a stone on one side of a structure and destroys a wall on the other side!

How savage is love that plants a flower and uproots a field; that revives us for a day and stuns us for an age. The mean of reviving a language lie in the heart of the poet and upon his lips and between his fingers. The poet is the mediator between the creative power and the people. He is the wire that transmits the news of the world of spirit to the world of research. The poet is the father and mother of the language, which goes wherever he goes. When he dies, it remains prostrate over his grave, weeping and forlorn, until another poet comes to uplift it.

The calamity of the sons lies in the endowments of the parents. And he who does not deny them and will remain the slave of Death until he dies.

The dead tremble before the tempest; but the living walk with it.

Strange are the self-worshipers, since they worship carrion.

The tremors of people shaken by the storm of life makes them appear alive. But in reality they have been dead since the day of their birth, and they lie unburied and the stench of decay rises from their bodies. There are mysteries within the soul which no hypothesis can uncover and no guess can revel.

Because he was born in fear and lives a coward, man hides in the crevices of the earth when he sees the tempest coming.

The bird has an an honor that man does not have. Man lives in the traps of his fabricated laws and traditions; but the birds live according to the natural law of God who causes the earth to turn around the sun.

Believing is one thing, doing another. Many talk like the sea but their lives are stagnant marshes.

Others raise their heads above the mountain tops, while their souls cling to the dark walls of caves.

Worship does not require seclusion and solitude.

Prayer is the song of the heart that makes its way to the throne of God even when entangled in the wailing of thousands of souls.

How distant I am from people when I am with them, and how close when they are far away.

People respect motherhood only when it wears the raiment of their laws.

Love, like death, changes everything.

The souls of some people are like school blackboards on which Time writes signs, rules and examples that are immediately erased with a wet sponge.

The reality of music is in that vibration that remains in the ear after the singer finishes his song and the player no longer plucks the strings.

What shall I say about him who borrows form me

money to buy a sword with which to attack me?

My enemy said to me, "Love your enemy." And I obeyed him and loved myself.

The black said to the white, "If you were grey I would be lenient with you."

Many who know the price of everything are ignorant of its value.

Every man's history is written upon his forehead, but in a language none but he who receives revelations can read.

The freedom of the one who boasts of it is a slavery.

Good taste is not in making the right choice, but in perceiving in something the natural unity between its quantities and qualities.

The coarseness of some is preferable to the gentleness of others.

When people abhor what they cannot comprehend, they are like those burning with fever, to whom the choicest food is unpalatable.

The wolf preys upon the lamb in the dark of the night, but the blood stains remain to accuse him by day.

Truth is the will and purpose of God in man.

I shall follow the path to wherever my destiny and my mission for Truth shall take me.

The man who inherits his wealth builds his mansion with money taken from the weak and the poor.

The last steps of the slaughtered bird are painful, involuntary and unknowing; but those who witness that grisly dance know what caused it.

God has placed a torch in your hearts that glows with knowledge and beauty; it is a sin to extinguish that torch and bury it in the ashes.

Tears and LaughterLove has power that dispels Death; charm that conquers the enemy.

In God's field of Beauty, at the edge of the stream of life, I was imprisoned in the cage of laws made by man.

Everything of beauty that awakens my love and desire is a disgrace, according to man's conceptions; everything of goodness that I crave is but naught, according to his judgment.

Yesterday I was a happy shepherd looking upon his head as a merciful king looks with pleasure upon his contented subjects. Today I am a slave standing before my wealth, my wealth which robbed me of the beauty of life I once knew.

The eternal soul is never contented; it ever seeks exaltation.

One hour devoted to mourning and lamenting the

stolen equality of the weak is nobler than a century filled with greed and usurpation. It is at that hour when the heart is purified by flaming sorrow and illuminated by the torch of love. And in that century, desires for truth are buried in the bosom of the earth. That hour is the root which must flourish. That hour of meditation, the hour of prayer, and the hour of a new era of good.

And that century is a life of Nero spent on self-investment taken solely from earthly substance. This is life. Portrayed on the stage for ages; recorded earthly for centuries; lived in strangeness for years; sung as a hymn for days; exalted but for an hour, but the hour is treasured by eternity as a jewel.

A Poet is a link between this and the coming world. He is a pure spring from which all thirsty souls may drink...He is an angel, send by the goddess to preach the Deity's gospel; He is a brilliant lamp, unconquered by darkness And inextinguishable by the wind. It is filled with Oil by Istar of Love, and lighted by Apollon of Music. He is a solitary figure, robed in simplicity and Kindness; He sits upon the lap of Nature to draw his Inspiration, and stays up in the silence of the night, Awaiting the descending of the spirit. He is a sower who sows the seeds of his heart in the Prairies of affection, and humanity reaps the Harvest for her nourishment. This is the poet -- whom the people ignore in this life, And who is recognized only when he bids the earthly World farewell and returns to his arbor in heaven. This is the poet -- who asks naught of Humanity but a smile. This is the poet -- whose spirit ascends and Fills the firmament with beautiful sayings;

Yet the people deny themselves his radiance. Until when shall the people remain asleep? Until when shall they continue to glorify those Who attain greatness by moments of advantage? How long shall they ignore those who enable Them to see the beauty of their spirit, Symbol of peace and love? Until when shall human beings honor the dead And forget the living, who spend their lives Encircled in misery, and who consume themselves Like burning candles to illuminate the way For the ignorant and lead them into the path of light? Poet, you are the life of this life, and you have Triumphed over the ages of despite their severity. Poet, you will one day rule the hearts, and Therefore, your kingdom has no ending. Poet, examine your crown of thorns; you will Find concealed in it a budding wreath of laurel.

I am the poet's elation, and the artist's revelation, and the musician's inspiration.

Only those return to Eternity, who on earth seek out Eternity.

Humanity rages like a tempest, but I sigh in silence for I know the storm must pass away while a sigh goes to God.

Men cling to earthly things, but I seek ever to embrace the torch of love so it will purify me by its fire and sear inhumanity from my heart.

Substantial things deaden a man without suffering; love awakens him with enlivening pains.

Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities and belong to no settlement. The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.

Men are weak, and it is sad that they divide amongst themselves. The world is narrow and it is unwise to cleave it into kingdoms, empires, and provinces.

Human kinds unite themselves one to destroy the temples of the soul, and they join hands to build edifices for earthly bodies. I stand alone listening to the voice of hope in my deep self saying, "As love enlivens a man's heart with pain, so ignorance teaches him the way of knowledge." Pain and ignorance lead to great joy and knowledge because the Supreme Being has created nothing vain under the sun.

Beauty is that which attracts your soul, and that which loves to give and not to receive.

One hour devoted to the pursuit of beauty and love is worth a full century of glory given by the frightened weak to the strong. From that hour comes man's Truth; and during that century truth sleeps between the restless arms of disturbing dreams. In that hour the soul sees for herself the natural law, and for that century she imprisons herself behind the law of man; and she is shackled with irons of oppression.

I love you because you are weak before the strong oppressor, and poor before the greedy rich. For these reasons I shed tears and comfort you; and from behind

my tears I see you embraced in the arms of Justice, smiling and forgiving your persecutors. You are my brother and I love you.

Man cannot reap love until after sad and revealing separation, and bitter patience, and desperate hardship.

When you meet Beauty, you feel that the hands deep within your inner self are stretched forth to bring her into the domain of your heart. It is a magnificence combined of sorrow and joy; it is the Unseen which you see, and the Vague which you understand, and the Mute which you hear - it is the Holy of Holies that begins in yourself and ends vastly beyond your earthly imagination.

Selfishness, my brother, is the cause of blind superiority, and superiority creates clanship, and clanship creates authority which leads to discord and subjugation. The soul believes in the power of knowledge and justice over dark ignorance; it denies the authority that supplies the swords to defend and strengthen ignorance and oppression - that authority which destroyed Babylon and shook the foundation of Jerusalem and left Rome in ruins. It is that which made people criminals great men; made writers respect their names; made historians relate the stories of their inhumanity in manner of praise.

Humanity is the spirit of the Supreme Being on earth, and that humanity is standing amidst ruins, hiding its

nakedness behind tattered rags, shedding tears upon hollow cheeks, and calling for its children with pitiful voice. But the children are busy singing their clan's anthem; they are busy sharpening the swords and cannot hear the cry of their mothers. Humanity is the spirit of the Supreme Being on earth, and the Supreme Being preaches love and good will. But the people ridicule such teachings. The Nazarene Jesus listened, and crucifixion was his lot; Socrates heard the voice and followed it, and he too fell victim in body. The followers of The Nazarene and Socrates are the followers of Deity, and since people will not kill them, they deride them, saying, “Ridicule is more bitter than killing.'

the collected workThe significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.

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.

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have found the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

The Eye Of The ProphetI have floated in the universe of the infinite and flown in the upper air of the imaginary world. There I was close to the circle with its divine light; here, I am in the prison of matter.

He who has never looked at suffering cannot claim to see joy.

The Khalil Gibran ReaderTo understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to.

Your self consists of two selves; one imagines that he knows himself and the other that the people know him.

As one's gifts increase, his friends decrease.

Love has become a halo whose beginning is its end, and whose end is its beginning. It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.

The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation.

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.

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

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

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. Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

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

Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.

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.

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.

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

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit. Love without beauty is like flowers without fragrance and fruit without seeds.

How amazing time is, and how amazing we are. 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.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

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

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

Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known

toward what is arcane and concealed. Yesterday we complained of time and feared it, but today we love and embrace it. Indeed, we have begun to perceive its purposes and characteristics, and to comprehend its secrets and enigmas. Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

Human beings unite in destroying the temples of the spirit and cooperate in building the edifices of the body.

You are my brother, and both of us are sons of a single, universal, and sacred spirit. You are my likeness, for we are prisoners of the same body, fashioned from the same clay. You are my companion on the byways of life, my helper in perceiving the essence of reality concealed behind the mists. You are a human being and I have loved you, my brother.

Yesterday we complained of time and feared it, but today we love and embrace it.

I am a lost human heart, imprisoned in the foul dungeons of mans dictates; tied with chains of earthly authority, dead and forgotten by laughing humanity whose tongue is tied and whose eyes are empty of

visible tears....

Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.

I have existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end. I soared into limitless space and took wing in the imaginal world, approaching the circle of exalted light; and here I am now, mired in matter. I listened to the teachings of Confucius, imbibed the wisdom of Brahma, and sat beside Buddha beneath the tree of insight. And now I am here, wrestling with ignorance and unbelief. I was on Sinai when Yahweh shed his effulgence on Moses; at the River Jordan I witnessed the miracles of the Nazarene; and in Medina I heard the words of the Messenger to the Arabs. And here I am now, a captive of confusion. Life without Liberty is like a body without spirit. Liberty without thought is like a disturbed spirit ... Life, liberty, and thought - three persons in one substance, eternal, never-ending, and unceasing. Love and what generates it. Rebellion and what creates it. Liberty and what nourishes it. Three manifestations of God. And God is the conscience of the rational world. All that you see was and is for your sake. The numerous books, uncanny markings, and beautiful thoughts are the ghosts of souls who preceded you. The speech they weave is a link between you and your human siblings. The consequences that cause sorrow

and rapture are the seeds that the past has sown in the field of the soul, and by which the future shall profit.

My yearning is my cup, my burning thirst is my drink, and my solitude is my intoxication; I do not and shall not quench my thirst. But in this burning that is never extinguished is a joy that never wanes.

That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness, will appear tomorrow as an essential link in the complete chain of Man.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

He who would seek truth and proclaim it to mankind is bound to suffer. My sorrows have taught me to understand the sorrows of my fellow men……persecution..(has not) dimmed the vision within me.

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Life is that which we see and experience through the spirit; but the world around us we come to know through our understanding and reason. And such knowledge brings us great joy or sorrow.

Thoughts and MeditationTo be modest in speaking truth is hypocrisy.

The law of evolution has a severe and oppressive

countenance and those of limited or fearful mind dread it; but its principles are just, and those who study them become enlightened. Through its Reason men are raised above themselves and can approach the sublime.

Thoughts have a higher dwelling place than the visible world, and its skies are not clouded by sensuality. Imagination finds a road to the realm of the gods, and there man can glimpse that which is to be after the soul's liberation from the world of substance.

Life without Rebellion is like the seasons without Spring. And Rebellion without Right is like Spring in an arid desert…Life, Rebellion, and Right are three-in-one who cannot be changed or separated.

Life without Freedom is like a body without a soul, and Freedom without Thought is like a confused spirit..Life, Freedom, and Thought are three-in-one who cannot be changed or separated.

That which Love begets, that which Rebellion creates, that which Freedom rears, are three manifestations of God. And God is the expression of the intelligent Universe.

Poetry, my dear friends, is a sacred incarnation of a smile. Poetry is a sigh that dries the tears. Poetry is a spirit who dwells in the soul, whose nourishment is the heart, whose wine is affection. Poetry that comes not in this form is a false messiah.

Conscience is a just but weak judge. Weakness leaves it powerless to execute its judgment.

Yesterday, I stood at the temple door interrogating the passers-by about the mystery and merit of Love. And before me passed an old man with an emaciated and melancholy face, who sighed and said: “Love is a natural weakness bestowed upon us by the first man.” But a virile youth retorted: “Love joins our present with the past and the future.” Then a woman with a tragic face and sighed and said, “Love is a deadly poison injected by black vipers, that crawl from the caves of hell. The poison seems fresh as dew and the thirsty soul eagerly drinks it; but after the first intoxication the drinker sickens and dies a slow death.” Then a beautiful, rose-cheeked damsel smilingly said: “Love is wine served by the brides of Dawn which strengthens strong souls and enables them to ascend to the stars.” After her a black-robed, bearded man, frowning, said, “Love is the blind ignorance with which youth begins and ends.” Another, smiling, declared: “Love is a divine knowledge that enables men to see as much as the gods.” Then a blind man, feeling his way with a cane: “Love is a blinding mist that keeps the soul from discerning the secret of existence, so that the heart sees only trembling phantoms of desire among the hills, and hears only echoes of cries from voiceless valleys.” And a feeble ancient, dragging his feet like two rags, said in a quivering tones: “Love is the rest of the body in the quiet of the grave, the tranquility of the soul in the depth of Eternity.” And a five-year old child, after him, said laughing: “Love is my father and mother, and no one knows Love except my father and mother.” And so, all who

passed spoke of Love as the image of their hopes and frustrations, leaving it a mystery as before.

New DocumentMy Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me to touch what has never taken corporeal form or crystallized. It made me understand that touching something is half the task of comprehending it, and that what we grasp therein is part of what we desire from it.

* My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me to love what the people abhor and to show good will toward the one they hate. It showed me that Love is a property not of the lover but of the beloved. Before my Soul taught me, Love was for me a delicate thread stretched between two adjacent pegs, but now it has been transformed into a halo; its first is its last, and its last is its first. It encompasses every being, slowly expanding to embrace all that ever will be. * My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me not to measure time by saying, "It was yesterday, and will be tomorrow." Before my Soul taught me, I imagined the past as an era not to be met with, and the future as an age that I would never witness. But now I know that in the brief moment of the present, all time exists, including everything that is in time - all that is eagerly anticipated, achieved, or realized. My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me not to define a place by saying 'here' or 'there'. Before my Soul taught me, I thought that when I was in any place on the earth I was remote from every other spot. But

now I have learned that the place where I subsist is all places, and the space I occupy is all intervals.

My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me never to delight in praise or to be distressed by reproach. Before my Soul taught me, I doubted the value of my accomplishments until the passing days sent someone who would extol or disparage them. But now I know that trees blossom in the spring and give their fruits in the summer without any desire for accolades. And they scatter their leaves abroad in the fall and denude themselves in the winter without fear of reproof.

--Happiness is a vine that sakes root and grows within the heart, never outside it.

My existence, with all that I have revealed and hidden concerning it, appears to me like an atom in the sigh of a small child, a moment that trembles in a void stretching from Creation to Eternity.

Love is all I can possess and no one can deprive me of it.

That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness, will appear tomorrow as an essential link in the complete chain of Man.

Reason and learning are like body and soul. Without the body, the soul is nothing but empty wind. Without the soul, the body is but a senseless frame.

Reason without learning is like the untilled soil, or like

the human body that lacks nourishment.

Reason is not like the goods sold in the market places - the more plentiful they are, the less they are worth. Reason's worth waxes with her abundance. But were she sold in the market, it is only the wise man who would understand her true value.

Life is a woman bathing in the tears of her lovers and anointing herself with the blood of her victims. Her raiments are white days, lined with the darkness of night. She takes the human heart to lover, but denies herself in marriage.

Life is an enchantress who seduces us with her beauty - but he who knows her wiles will flee her enchantments.

The Reality of Life is Life itself, whose beginning is not in the womb, and whose ending is not in the grave. For the years that pass are naught but a moment in eternal life; and the world of matter and all in it is but a dream compared to the awakening which we call the terror of Death.

Truth calls to us, drawn by the innocent laughter of a child, or the kiss of a loved one, but we close the door of affection in her face and deal with her as with an enemy.

When Reason speaks to you, hearken to what she says, and you shall be saved. Make good use of her utterances, and you shall be as one armed. For the Lord has given you no better guise than Reason, no stronger

arm than Reason. When Reason speaks to your inmost self, you are proof against Desire. For Reason is a prudent minister, a loyal guide, and a wise counselor. Reason is light in the darkness, as anger is darkness amidst the light. Be wise – let Reason, not Impulse, be your guide.

Learning is the only wealth tyrants cannot despoil. Only death can dim the lamp of knowledge that is within you. The true wealth of a nation lies not in its gold or silver but in its learning, wisdom, and in the uprightness of its sons. Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Know your own true worth, and you shall not perish. Reason is your light and your beacon of Truth. Reason is the source of life. God has given you Knowledge, so that by its light you may not only worship him, but also see yourself in your weakness and strength. Remember that Divinity is the true self of Man. It cannot be sold for gold; neither can it be heaped up as are the riches of the world today. The rich man has cast off his Divinity, and has clung to his gold. And the young today have forsaken their Divinity and pursue self-indulgence and pleasure.

I love you, my brother, whoever you are - whether you worship in your church, kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque. You and I are all children of one faith, for the divers paths of religion are fingers of the loving hand of one Supreme Being, a hand extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive

all. Great truth that transcends Nature does not pass from one being to another by way of human speech. Truth chooses Silence to convey her meaning to loving souls.

Nature reaches out to us with welcoming arms, and bids us to enjoy her beauty; but we dread her silence and rush into the crowded cities, there to hurdle like sheep fleeing from a ferocious wolf.

Life takes us up and bears us from one place to another; fate moves us from one point to another. And we, caught up between these twain, hear dreadful voices and see only that which stands as a hindrance and obstacle in our path.

Marriage is the union of two divinities that a third might be born on earth. It is the union of two souls in a strong love for the abolishment of separateness. It is that higher unity which fuses the separate unites within the two spirits. It is the golden ring in a chain whose beginning is a glance, and whose ending is Eternity. It is the pure rain that falls from an unblemished sky to fructify and bless the fields of divine Nature.

Great truth that transcends Nature does not pass from one being to another by way of human speech. Truth chooses Silence to convey her meaning to loving souls.

Remember, one just man causes the Devil greater affliction than a million blind believers.

The human heart cries out for help; the human soul

implores us for deliverance; but we do not heed their criesm, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him. Thus the nights pass, and we live in unawareness; and the days greet us and embrace us. But we live in constant dread of day and night.

The life that the rich man spends in heaping up gold is in truth like the life of the worms in the grave. It is a sign of fear.

We are naught but frail atoms in the heavens of the infinite; and we cannot but obey and surrender to the will of Providence. If we love, our love is neither from us, nor is it for us. If we rejoice, our joy is not in us, but in Life itself. If we suffer, our pain lies not in our wounds, but in the very heart of Nature.

The earth that opens wide her mouth to swallow man and his works is the redeemer of our souls from bondage to our bodies.

Freedom bids us to her table where we may partake of her savory food and rich wine; but when we sit down at her board, we eat ravenously and glut ourselves.

You may tie my hands with chains, and my feet with shackles, and put me in the dark prison, but you shall not enslave my thinking, for it is free, like the breeze in the spacious sky.

Man is like a foam in the sea, that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives

blown away by Death.

Remember, one just man causes the Devil greater affliction than a million blind believers.

The riches of the spirit beautify the face of man and give birth to sympathy and respect. The spirit in every being is made manifest in the eyes, the countenance, and in all bodily movements and gestures. Our appearance, our words, our actions are never greater than ourselves. For the soul is our house; our eyes its windows; and our words its messengers. For a wise man approaches with his torch to light up the path of mankind.

My brother whoever you are, whether you worship in your church, kneel in your temple or pray in your mosque you and I are children of one faith, fingers of the loving hand of one supreme being, a hand extended to all.

Love passes by us, robed in meekness; but we flee from her in fear, or hide in the darkness; or else pursue her, to do evil in her name.

There, in the world to come, we shall see and feel all the vibrations of our feelings and the motions of our hearts. We shall understand the meaning of the divinity within us, whom we condemn because we are prompted by Despair.

The human heart cries out for help; the human soul

implores us for deliverance; but we do not heed their

cries, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him. Thus the nights pass, and we live in unawareness; and the days greet us and embrace us. But we live in constant dread of day and night.

If your knowledge teaches you not to rise above human weakness and misery and lead your fellow man on the right path, you are indeed a man of little worth and will remain such till Judgment Day.

The wise man is he who loves and reveres God. A man’s merit lies in his knowledge and in his deeds, not in his color, faith, race, or descent. For remember, my friend, the son of a shepherd who possesses knowledge is of greater worth to a nation than the heir to the throne, if he be ignorant. Knowledge is your true patent of nobility, no matter who your father or what your race may be.

Are you troubled by the many faiths that Mankind professes? Are you lost in the valley of conflicting beliefs? Do you think that the freedom of heresy is less burdensome than the yoke of submission, and the liberty of dissent safer than the stronghold of acquiescence? If such be the case, then make Beauty your religion, and worship her as your godhead; for she is the visible, manifest and perfect handiwork of God. Cast off those who have toyed with godliness as if it were a sham, joining together greed and arrogance; but believe instead in the divinity of beauty that is at once the beginning of your worship of Life, and the source of your hunger for Happiness.

Knowledge and understanding are life’s faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown, and understanding your staff; and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasures.

My fellow poor, Poverty sets off the nobility of the spirit while wealth discloses its evil. Sorrow softens the feelings, and Joy heals the wounded heart. Were Sorrow and Poverty abolished, the spirit of man would be like an empty tablet, with naught inscribed save the signs of selfishness and greed.

And generations to come shall learn of Sorrow and Poverty a lesson of Love and Equality.

For Life is a chain made up of many diverse links. Sorrow is one golden link between submission to the present and and the promised hope of the future.

My poor friend, if you only knew that the Poverty which causes you so much wretchedness is the very thing that reveals the knowledge of Justice and the understanding of Life, you would be contented with your lot. I say knowledge of Justice: for the rich man is too eager in his pursuit of power and glory to keep to the straight path of truth. Rejoice then, my poor friend, for you are the mouth of Justice and the book of Life. Be content, for you are the source of virtue in those who rule over you and the pillar of integrity of those who guide you.

Music is the language of spirits. Its melody is like the frolicsome breeze that makes the strings quiver with

love. When the gentle fingers of Music knock at the door of our feelings, they awaken memories that have long lain hidden in the depths of the Past. The sad strains of Music bring us mournful recollections; and her quiet strains bring us joyful memories. The sound of strings makes us weep at the departure of a dear one, or makes us smile at the peace God has bestowed upon us.

Beauty reveals herself to us as she sits on the throne of glory; but we approach her in the name of Lust, snatch off her crown of purity, and pollute her garment with our evil-doing.

Life is an island in an ocean of loneliness , an island whose rocks are hopes, whoses trees are dreams, whose flowers are solitude, and whose brooks are thirst.

If you do not descry the mote in your own eye, surely you will not see it in your neighbor's.

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

Your life, my brother, is a solitary habitation separated from other men's dwellings. It is a house into whose interior no neighbor's gaze can penetrate. If it were plunged into darkness, your neighbor's lamp could not illuminate it. If it were emptied of provisions, the stores of your neighbors could not fill it. If it stood in a desert, you could not move it into other men's gardens, tilled and planted by other hands. If it stood on a mountaintop, you could not bring it down into the

valley trod by other men's feet. Your spirit's life, my brother, is encompassed by loneliness, and were it not for that loneliness and solitude, you would not be you, nor would I be I. Were it not for this loneliness and solitude, I would come to believe on hearing your voice that it was my voice speaking; or seeing your face, that it was myself looking into a mirror. He who understands you is greater kin to you than your own brother. For even your own kindred may neither understand you nor know your true worth.