I was unwittingly introduced to this poet/writer because the Founder Principal of our school had an excerpt from one of his more famous books (The Prophet) inserted in our School Diary. I’m thinking she had it in there for a reason – that every parent should read and imbibe them. And if possible, I'd recommend getting a print-out and sticking it somewhere they can see it every morning! (And conversely, I do realize I’m supposed to remember the same when I become a parent some day. Errr...) I'm referring to what is popularly known as ‘On Children’. I realized I was reading someone special.
Here are more of his thoughts from his book ‘Sand and Foam’. I had a very tough time picking a few - and the list still is pretty long, you’d agree! What’s interesting is that each time I read them, my understanding of it is different (even if slightly), depending on my state of mind. And most of these are probably things “we know” but presented ingeniously. The mark of great thinker.
So here we go…a lot of food for thought!
Aphorisms ahead…
Once I saw the face of a woman, and I beheld all her children not yet born.
And a woman looked in my face and she knew all my forefathers, dead before she was born.
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Remembrance is a form of meeting.
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Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.
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Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.
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Paradise is there, behind that door, in the next room; but I have lost the key.
Perhaps I have only mislaid it.
Perhaps I have only mislaid it.
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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.
Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.
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A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.
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Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.
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All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.
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If you would possess you must not claim.
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Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy their great virtues.
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Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.
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Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is in giving me that which you need more than I do.
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We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.
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Trickery succeeds sometimes, but it always commits suicide.
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It is only when you are pursued that you become swift.
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Only those beneath me can envy or hate me.
I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one.
Only those above me can praise or belittle me.
I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.
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Your saying to me, "I do not understand you," is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve.
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Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights.
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They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold;
And I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.
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Once I spoke of the sea to a brook, and the brook thought me but an imaginative exaggerator;
And once I spoke of a brook to the sea, and the sea thought me but a depreciative defamer.
And once I spoke of a brook to the sea, and the sea thought me but a depreciative defamer.
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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.
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Perhaps the sea's definition of a shell is the pearl.
Perhaps time's definition of coal is the diamond.
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Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light.
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I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
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The silence of the envious is too noisy.
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An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.
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A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success.
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Wit is often a mask. If you could tear it you would find either a genius irritated or cleverness juggling.
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We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them.
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Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death.
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The bitterest thing in our today's sorrow is the memory of our yesterday's joy.
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If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
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Turtles can tell more about roads than hares.
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You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.
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Seven centuries ago seven white doves rose from a deep valley flying to the snow-white summit of the mountain. One of the seven men who watched the flight said, “I see a black spot on the wing of the seventh dove.”
Today the people in that valley tell of seven black doves who flew to the summit of the snowy mountain.
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