Khalil Gibran

Who was Khalil Gibran?

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer.

Born in the town of Bsharri in the north of modern-day Lebanon, as a young man he immigrated with his family to the United States, where he studied art and began his literary career, writing in both English and Arabic. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero.

He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again especially in the 1960s counterculture. Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi.

Famous Quotes:

• Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
• The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements, compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.
• One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.
• Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.
• Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
• Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolutions.
• The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.
• 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.
• When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.
• You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.