And stand together, and yet not too near together. For even the pillars of the temple must stand apart; and the oak tree and the cypress will not grow in each other's shadow.

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

How can you sing if your mouth be filled with food? How shall your hand be raised in blessing if it is filled with gold?
-- Kahlil Gibran

How distant I am from the people when I am with them, and how close when they are far away.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from those unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

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

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

The light of the stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So is it with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personality.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest and then becomes a host, and then a master.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.

The rich claim kinship with those of noble birth; and the nobly-born seek marriages among the rich; and each despises the other.

The silence of the envious is too noisy.

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.

Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
-- Kahlil Gibran

We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.

What shall I say of the man who slaps me when I kiss him on the face and who kisses my foot when I slap him?

When you enjoy loving your neighbor it ceases to be a virtue.

When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, 'I am in the heart of God.' And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.