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Quotes / Thinkers / Kahlil Gibran

Thinker · 13 quotes

Kahlil Gibran quotes for UPSC

13 sourced quotes by Kahlil Gibran on democracy & freedom, mind & self-awareness, relationships & friendship, youth, dreams & ambition, civil services & public service, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.

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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.
— Kahlil GibranKhalil in Spirits Rebellious (1908) "Khalil The Heretic" Part 3
Use itGS4: call to serve the weak who sustain society; public service motivation.
Civil Services & Public ServiceCompassion & EmpathyEssayGS4
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
— Kahlil GibranChildren of Gods, Scions of Apes
Use itEssay on transition from monarchy to democracy; allegiance to truth, not rulers.
Democracy & FreedomTruth & WisdomEssayGS1
Life without Liberty is like a body without spirit. Liberty without thought is like a disturbed spirit … Life, liberty, and thought — three persons in one substance, eternal, never-ending, and unceasing.
— Kahlil GibranThe Vision
Use itEssay on liberty and thought: freedom needs reason to be meaningful.
Democracy & FreedomEducation & KnowledgeEssay
A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.
— Kahlil GibranSand and Foam (1926)
Use itGS4: discretion and confidentiality; knowing truth vs speaking it at right time.
Truth & WisdomIntegrity & HonestyGS4Interview
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
— Kahlil GibranThe Prophet (1923)
Use itLife: pain breaks the shell of understanding; suffering brings growth.
Resilience & PerseveranceMind & Self-awarenessEssayLife
Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.
— Kahlil GibranKahlil Gibran, The Awakened Soul ISBN-10: 1864760818 (January 2001)
Use itEssay on happiness: fulfilment lies within, not in external pursuits.
Happiness & Meaning of LifeMind & Self-awarenessEssayLife
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
— Kahlil GibranA Handful of Sand on the Shore, as quoted in Alterquest: the Alternative Quest for Answers (2006) by Karen Fiala, p. 127
Use itEssay on progress: true progress is moving toward the future, not polishing the present.
Time & ChangeScience, Technology & InnovationEssayGS3
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.
— Kahlil GibranSand and Foam (1926)
Use itLife: solitude sheds the dead and deepens roots during preparation.
Mind & Self-awarenessHealth & WellbeingLife
The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.
— Kahlil GibranSand and Foam (1926)
Use itGS4: empathetic listening; understand what people leave unsaid.
Relationships & FriendshipLeadershipGS4Life
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to.
— Kahlil GibranAs quoted in Become a Conscious Creator: A Return to Self-Empowerment (2007) by Lisa Ford, p. 44
Use itInterview: judge people by aspirations, not just achievements.
Youth, Dreams & AmbitionMind & Self-awarenessInterviewLife
I would be the least among men with dreams and the desire to fulfill them, rather than the greatest with no dreams and no desires.
— Kahlil GibranSand and Foam (1926)
Use itLife: better humble with dreams than great without them.
Youth, Dreams & AmbitionEssayLife

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