Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 in the city of Besharri near the biblical cedars of Lebanon. In boyhood he immigrated to Boston where he began his career as artist and author. His books, written in both arabic and english, have been translated into numerous languages and are widely quoted. Gibran's book The Prophet, is one of the most widely read books of the 20th century. 

Kahlil Gibran's Legacy is the powerful simplicity of his words, which continue to inspire those who long for peace, search for love, and strive for justice. "Work is Love made visible" he wrote in The Prophet. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931. Before his death, Gibran expressed the wish to be buried in his place of birth, Besharri. Almost one centry today, Gibran remains the most popular Lebanese-American writer ever.

here are some of his quotes

Q1
I have been thinking of writing, giving forms to the one thought that occupied my days and nights and changed my inner life (...) God and the Earth and the soul of man.


Q2
I have always thought that a revelation is simply the discovery of an element in us, in our larger self, the self that knows what we do not know, and feels that which we dare not feel. And what we call growth is nothing but knowledge of that larger self.


Q3
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.

Q3
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

Q4
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.

Q5
When I paint a picture, I try to give the picture a presence. It is the coming together of certain elements in a certain way, as if they made a sort of path along which God can come through to our consciousness.

Q6
I use hate as a weapon to defend myself; had I been strong, I would never have needed that kind of weapon.

Q7
God does not like to be worshipped by an ignorant man who imitates someone else.


Q8
Hell is not in torture; Hell is in an empty heart.

Q9
Remember, one just man causes the Devil greater affliction than a million blind believers.


Q10
The soul is a golden ring detached from the chain of divinity.


Q11
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.


Q12
Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert.

POETRY : FREEDOM

From the source of the Nile to the mouth of Ferrat

From the borders of the Arab Gezirah to the mountains of Lebanon

From the shores of the Gulf to the borders of the Sahara
All eyes will turn towards you, overwhelmed by the warmth of the heart


So,

Look at us FREEDOM

Hear us

Make us strong so we can live

Or make our enemy stronger so we can vanish and rest.