Meets and draws Yeats.

1912

Settles in New York City. His novel, Broken Wings, dedicated to Mary Haskell, is published in New York in Arabic. Meets and draws Abdu’l-Baha, then leader of the Baha’i faith.

1913

Meets and draws Carl Jung.

1914

A Tear and a Smile, a collection of prose poems, is published in Arabic in New York. Exhibit of Gibran’s paintings takes place at Montross Gallery in New York.

1916

Publishes several prose poems in English in the new literary journal, “Seven Arts.”

1917

Exhibit of his work by M. Knoedler & Co., New York.

1918

Turning point in Gibran’s literary career comes with the publication of The Madman in English. He becomes more outspoken in his political views: on the makeup of the emerging countries Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, Gibran calls on politicians to adopt the positive aspects of the Western culture--even as he was introducing Western culture to the mysticism of the East.

1920

Founding of the Arab literary group “Pen League” in New York. Gibran publishes The Forerunner, a collection of parables and sayings, his second book in English.

1923

Publishes his magnum opus, The Prophet, in New York to instant success and fame; the title has never been out of print since. Mary Haskell moves to Georgia and marries.

1926

Publishes Sand and Foam in New York. Gibran begins to contribute articles to the quarterly journal “The New Orient,” which took an international approach encouraging the East and West to meet.

1928

Publication of Jesus, Son of Man, which presents portraits of Jesus through the eyes of His contemporaries.

1931

The Earth Gods, a long prose poem, is published in March. Gibran dies on April 10th at a New York hospital. His body is sent back to Lebanon, where his coffin is carried in a long celebratory procession from Beirut to Besharri. The Mar Sarkis monastery in Besharri was purchased according to Gibran’s wishes and he was eventually moved to his final resting-place there. His belongings, the books he read, and some of his works and illustrations were later shipped to provide a local collection in the monastery, which turned into the Gibran Museum.

Gibran Quotes

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country?

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

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

To be able to look back upon one’s life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.

To belittle, you have to be little.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

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.

A man’s true wealth is the good he does in the world.

You may forget with whom you laughed, but you will never forget with whom you wept.

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning is refreshed.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker, and no one else’s.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

Love that is washed by tears will remain eternally pure and faithful.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. And think not you can direct the course of love; if it finds you worthy, it directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

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

Remembrance is a form of meeting.

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

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

Seek ye counsel of the aged for their eyes have looked on the faces of the years and their ears have hardened to the voices of Life. Even if their counsel is displeasing to you, pay heed to them.

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

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.

Editor’s Preface

KAHLIL GIBRAN might well have been an ancient, for the delicacy of his mind, the observations of his inner eyes, and the broad wisdom of his every parable. To ponder his profound approach to the complexities of life and then realize his recency to this world presents a momentary incongruity. It is soon lost, however, for Gibran is of all ages.

The advanced thought expressed in his ricli, perceptive manner of thinking aloud slowly is characteristic of the mystics of the East, who devoted themselves to intensity of thought development. His mental meandering pursues a course that enables him to set forth the most intricate and deep-set ideas and problems in the simplest of language and understanding, and this quality, sought by so many and possessed by so few, paradoxically places Gibran many years into the future.

It is actually astounding that this, “the first breeze in the tempest of his life,” with its obvious historical influence, tremendous philosophical significance, metaphysical probings, and ripe appreciation of life was written when he was scarcely twenty years old. He forces a sharp insistence to recall Plato and Goethe, whose classic works emerged in youth.