Best Quotes By Kahlil Gibran On Love, Pain & The Gift Of Friendship

Kahlil Gibran, a writer with multiple talents was better known for his mystical Arabic and English works that earned international acclaim.

Palestinian poet and writer Salma Khadra Jayyusi worded him as “the single most important influence on Arabic poetry and literature during the first half of the twentieth century,” and continues to be the highly celebrated literary artist in Lebanon.

Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins quoted that Gibran’s life has been described as one “often caught between Nietzschean rebellion, Blakeanpantheism, and Sufi mysticism.”

Also read: 100 Platinum Quotes by the “Phenomenal Woman” Maya Angelou

Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran (January 6, 1883 to April 10, 1931):

Born in a hamlet of the Ottoman-ruled Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Gibran’s work carry an aroma of the motherland, where he was born in. He discussed different themes in his writings and explored diverse literary forms.

Over his lifetime, the author fabricated versatile literary works and visual art. Some of his famous works include– The Prophet, Broken Wings, Sand and Foam, The Madman, The Wanderer, and others.

Know more about this creative genius by checking out some of the best quotes by Kahlil Gibran on Love, Pain, and Friendship.

Kahlil Gibran on Love:

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.”

“And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

“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.”

“Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. 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.”

“Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names.’’

“It was love lashed by its own self that spoke. It was pride half slain that fluttered in the dust. It was my hunger for your love that raged from the housetop, while my own love, kneeling in silence, prayed your forgiveness.”

“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 for years or even generations.”

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.”

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

“One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.”

“It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone… but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.”

“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.”

“Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation”

“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 on Pain and Sorrow:

“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother. Doubt is a foundling unhappy and astray, and though his own mother who gave him birth should find him and enfold him, he would withdraw in caution and in fear.”

“Much of your pain is self-chosen.”

“Your life is an island separated from all other islands and continents. Regardless of how many boats you send to other shores or how many ships arrive upon your shores, you yourself are an island separated by its own pains, secluded in its happiness.”

“Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.”

“Our pain carves out a larger space for love to fill.”

“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?”

“Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.”

“Hearts united in pain and sorrow will not be separated by joy and happiness. Bonds that are woven in sadness are stronger than the ties of joy and pleasure. Love that is washed by tears will remain eternally pure and faithful.”

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

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

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

Kahlil Gibran on Friendship:

“For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

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

“You may forget with whom you laughed, but you will never forget with whom you wept.”

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, does the heart find its morning and is refreshed.”

“When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as
the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.”

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Let thy spirit be high in love. Namaste