The Prophet

by Kahlil Gibran

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.

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

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

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.