26 things Gibran Khalil Gibran's The Prophet teaches us about life
The Prophet
is one of Gibran Khalil Gibran's most renowned masterpieces. It follows Almustafa, a prophet in the city of Orphalese, who is about to return home. He stopped by a group of people and told them about life. The book contains 26 short poems about subjects such as freedom and religion. The Prophet was initially written in English and has been translated into more than forty languages. In 2014, the American-Mexican actress of Lebanese descent Salma Hayek co-produced "Khalil Gibran's The Prophet" which was an international success. If you haven't read the book, we hope that these quotes will motivate you to put
The Prophet on your must-read list!
Love
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.
Marriage
And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of a temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
Children
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
Giving
You give little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Eating and Drinking
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart, "Your seeds shall live in my body, And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."
Work
But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.
Joy and Sorrow
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.
Houses
Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.
Clothes
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.
Buying and selling
For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.
Crime and Punishment
The erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self.
Laws
You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
Freedom
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.
Reason and Passion