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Ambition
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"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Visit of Wisdom"
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Art
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"Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Attitude
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"Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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"The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Body, the
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"Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Beauty"
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Children
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"You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth."
-Kahlil Gibran
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Choice
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"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."
-Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
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Death
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"Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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Desires
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"All that spirits desire, spirits attain."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Poet of Baalbek"
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Difficulty
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"Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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Drinking
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"Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking."
-Kahlil Gibran, "My Soul Is Heavy Laden with its Fruits"
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Faith
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"What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?"
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Visit of Wisdom"
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"Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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Generosity
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
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For this I bless you most: You give much and know not that you give at all.
-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet - "The Farewell"
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Growth
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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 might 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.
-Kahlil Gibran
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Guilt
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That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness, will appear tomorrow as an essential link in the complete chain of Man.
-Kahlil Gibran, The Voice of the Master, trans. Anthony R. Ferris
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Ignorance & Stupidity
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"I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Knowledge
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"Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Learning
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"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Sand and Foam"
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Legacy
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"Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Liberty
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"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Vision"
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Love
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"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Vision"
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Pacifism
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"If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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"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?"
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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Patriotism
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"What do the nationalists say about killers punishing murderers and thieves sentencing looters?"
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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People
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Visit of Wisdom"
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Perception
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"They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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"The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Poetry
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"A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Poet of Baalbek"
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Power
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"We were a silent, hidden thought in the folds of oblivion, and we have become a voice that causes the heavens to tremble."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Children of Gods, Scions of Apes"
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Progress
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"Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Children of Gods, Scions of Apes"
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"Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Reflection
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Philosophy of Logic"
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Religion
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"If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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"Cast aside those who liken godliness to whimsy and who try to combine their greed for wealth with their desire for a happy afterlife."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Beauty"
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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Revolution
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Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.
-Kahlil Gibran, The Vision
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Secrets
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"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."
-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
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Service
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Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country?
-Kahlil Gibran, The New Frontier
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Shyness
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"What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?"
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Captive King"
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Soul
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Anthem of Humanity"
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Time
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Children of Gods, Scions of Apes"
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War
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"Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being."
-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
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Wealth
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"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation."
-Kahlil Gibran, "A Handful of Sand on the Shore"
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Wisdom
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"Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents."
-Kahlil Gibran, "Between Reality and Fantasy"
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Work
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"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."
-Kahlil Gibran
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Books by and about Kahlil Gibran
