~Sand and Foam~

Some selections for you from Gibran's book Sand and Foam:

'I am forever walking upon these shores, betwixt the sand and the foam.  The high tide will erase my foot-prints, and the wind will blow away the foam.  But the sea and the shore will remain forever.'

'Only once have I been made mute.  It was when a man asked me, "who are you?"'

'We are fluttering, wandering, longing creatures a thousand thousand years before the sea and the wind in the forest gave us words.  Now how can we express the ancient of days in us with only the sounds of our yesterdays?'

'We measure time according to the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets.  Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place and the same time?'

'You are blind and I am deaf and dumb, so let us touch hands and understand.'

'Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.'

'A sense of humor is a sense of proportion.'

'The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.'

'If I were to choose between the power of writing a poem and the ecstasy of a poem unwritten, I would choose the ecstasy.  It is better poetry.  But you and all my neighbors agree that I always choose badly.'

'Poetry is wisdom that enchants the heart.  Wisdom is poetry that sings in the mind.  If we could enchant man's heart and at the same time sing in his mind, then in truth he would live in the shadow of God.'

'Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.'

'How shall my heart be unsealed unless it be broken?'

'Only great sorrow or great joy can reveal your truth.  If you would be revealed you must either dance naked in the sun, or carry your cross.'

'You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.'

'You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself.  Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?'

'I have no enemies, O God, but if I am to have an enemy let his strength be equal to mine, that truth alone may be the victor.'

'Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack or originality.'

'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.'

'If it were not for our conception of weights and measures we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun.'

'If the Milk Way were not within me how should I have seen it or known it?'

'Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too self-ful to seek other than itself.'

'Birth and death are the two noblest expressions of bravery.'

'A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.'

'Great beauty captures me, but a beauty still greater frees me even from itself.'

'He who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one of the seven gates of Paradise.'

'When I stood a clear mirror before you, you gazed into me and saw your image.  Then you said, "I love you."  But in truth you loved yourself in me.'


'Our God in His gracious thirst will drink us all, the dewdrop and the tear.'

'You may sit at your window watching the passerby.  And watching you may see a nun walking toward your right hand, and a prostitute toward your left hand.

And you may say in your innocence, "how noble is the one and how ignoble is the other."

But should you close your eyes and listen awhile you would hear a voice whispering in the ether, "One seeks me in prayer, and the other in pain.  And in the spirit of each there is a bower for my spirit."'

'You may have heard of the Blessed Mountain.

It is the mightiest mountain in our world.

Should you reach the summit you would have only one desire, and that to descend and be with those who dwell in the deepest valley.

That is why it is called the Blessed Mountain.'

Thank you Kahlil.