20 Lessons from Khalil Gibran. The Lessons of Life.
1. Be thankful for the difficult times.They have showed you how strong you can be.
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
2. Kindness is a quality of the strong.
“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.”
3. There's no such thing as absolute truth.
“Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’ “I AM IGNORANT of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.”
4. It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary.
“In the sweetness of friendship; let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
5. Seek to put up with bad manners pleasantly.
“The real test of good manners is to be able to put up with bad manners pleasantly.”
6. You might forget those who made you laugh, but you will never forget those who were by your side in your darkest hours.
“You may forget with whom you laughed, but you will never forget with whom you wept.” “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.”
7. Put love into your work.
“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. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.” “They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.”
8. True love can't be possessed.
“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 fulfill itself.”
9. To understand the heart and mind of a person, look at what he aspires to be.
“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.” “Trust in dreams, for in them is the hidden gate to eternity.”
10. Always look on the bright side of life.
“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.”
11. We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are.
“The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.”
12. True love is the offspring of spiritual affinity.
“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.”
13. Let there be space in your relationship.
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a 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, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”
14. If you pray when it rains, make sure you also pray when the sun shines.
“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.”
15. When you give of yourself, that’s when you truly give.
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
16. Your children are not your children. They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
“Your children are not your children. They are 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.”
17. Every relationship should be free from bondage.
“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.” “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.”
18. Be thankful for both the good and the bad in your life. It's all meant to teach you something.
“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.” “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.”
19. Your attitude towards life will determine life’s attitude towards you.
“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”
20. A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand.
“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?
