The Prophet By Kahlil Gibran

Excerpts from the book

Then Almitra, speak to us of 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.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill 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 or love,

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at the 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, speak to us of MARRIAGE:

Love one another, but make not a bond of Love:

Let it rather be 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,

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

And stand together yet not too near together:

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Then Almitra, speak to us of CHILDREN:

your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself/

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 strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

Then Almitra, speak to us of GIVING:

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

And what is fear of need but need itself?

There are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and the boundary 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 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.

It is better to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

Then Almitra, speak to us of Eating and drinking:

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  work:

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

Often have I heard you say, as of speaking in sleep, "He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.

Work is love made visible.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Joy and Sorrow:

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.

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.

Then Almitra, speak to us of Houses:

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 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 silence of night.

Then Almitra, speak to us of Clothes:

Why clothes are 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.

Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment.

For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

Then Almitra, speak to us of Buying and selling:

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.

Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

And before you leave the market-place, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands.

For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.

Then Almitra, speak to us of Crime and Punishment:

It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind, That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.

And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.

And a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole,

So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

You are the way and wayfarers.

And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.

You can not separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;

For they stand together before the dace 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 verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.

Only then shall you know that 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,

And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Laws:

You delight in laying down laws,

Yet you delight more in breaking them.

Verily the ocean laughs with the innocent.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Freedom:

You shall not be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in. constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

Then Almitra, speak to us of Reason and Passion:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

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.

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.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Pain:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

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;

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Self-Knowledge:

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.

And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.

For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Teaching:

No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the drawing of your knowledge.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding d space, but he can not give you his understanding.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

Then Almitra, 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.

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

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.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know flood also.

Seek him always with hours to live, For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For  in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning, and is refreshed.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Talking:

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 a half murdered.

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but can not fly.

The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes  their naked selves and they would escape.

And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.

And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  What of Time?

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.

And know that yesterday is bit to-day's memory and to-morrow is to-day's dream.

And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?

And let to-day embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

Then Almitra, speak to us of Good and 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 god when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

Yet you are not evil when you see gain for yourself.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech.

Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.

And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good, You are only loitering and sluggard.

Pity that the stags can not teach swiftness to the turtles.

For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the housless, "What has befallen your house?"

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Prayer:

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?

And if you can not but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.

Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

"Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Pleasure:

Pleasure is a freedom-song,

But it is not freedom.

It is the blossoming of your desires,

It is a depth calling unto a height,

But it is not the deep nor the high.

It is the caged taking wing,

But it is not space encompassed.

Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom-song.

They should remember their pleasure with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.

Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.

For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,  And to the flower a bee is messenger of love,

And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

Then Almitra, 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?

People of Orphalese, 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 you are the mirror.

Then Almitra, speak to us of  Religion:

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"?

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 if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles.

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, speak to us of  Death:

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day can not 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.

It is life in quest of life in bodies that dear the grave.