The Prophet

by Kahlil Gibran

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”

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

stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

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 to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

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

All you have shall some day be given; Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.

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.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within the city walls.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

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

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,

be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.