Khalil Gibran
Overview
 
Khalil Gibran also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. Born in the town of Bsharri
Bsharri
Bsharri , is a Lebanese town at about 1,450 m of altitude, near the Kadisha Valley. It is located at , in the Bsharri District of the North Governorate. Bsharri is the town of the only remaining Original Cedars of Lebanon...

 in modern-day Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 (then part of the Ottoman Mount Lebanon mutasarrifate
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate or Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the Tanzimat reform...

), as a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 where he studied art and began his literary career. He is chiefly known in the English speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet
The Prophet (book)
The Prophet is a book of 26 poetic essays written in English by the Lebanese artist, philosopher and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran's best known work...

, an early example of inspirational fiction
Inspirational fiction
Inspirational fiction is a term that refers to a sub-category within "inspirational literature," or "inspirational writing," used in various ways in the United States and other nations...

 including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 prose.
Quotations

Let us disperse from our aloofness and serve the weak who made us strong, and cleanse the country in which we live. Let us teach this miserable nation to smile and rejoice with heaven's bounty and glory of life and freedom.

Khalil in Spirits Rebellious (1908) "Khalil The Heretic" Part 3

The creator gives no heed to the critic unless he becomes a barren inventor.

Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran (1962) as translated by Anthony R. Ferris

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

A Handful of Sand on the Shore, as quoted in Alterquest: the Alternative Quest for Answers (2006) by Karen Fiala, p. 127

The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.

A Handful of Sand on the Shore

My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear — a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence. The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable. I would not have thee believe in what I say nor trust in what I do — for my words are naught but thy own thoughts in sound and my deeds thy own hopes in action.

My Friend

I know faces, because I look through the fabric my own eye weaves, and behold the reality beneath.

Faces

 
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