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Sand and Foam

Header image: KF – personal pic

[in progress]

Kahlil Gibran: Sand and Foam (1926)

I have learned silence from the talkative,
tolerance from the intolerant
and kindness from the unkind.
I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.

Remembrance is a form of meeting.
Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

My house says to me, “Do not leave me, for here dwells your past.”
And the road says to me, “Come and follow me, for I am your future.”
And I say to both my house and the road, “I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death will change all things.”

  • ﻼF: “Home” of old, was the past. “Home” of now, is my present”

How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth? Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.

I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.

When my cup is empty I resign myself to its emptiness; but when it is half full I resent its half-fullness.
* ﻼF: Alan

Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.
* ﻼF: Teach ~ reduce TTT, distill…

A sense of humour is a sense of proportion.
* ﻼF: and timing

The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.
* ﻼF: Palmer: The teacher within

If winter should say, “Spring is in my heart,” who would believe winter?

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

He who would understand a woman, or dissect genius, or solve the mystery of silence is the very man who would wake from a beautiful dream to sit at a breakfast table.
* ﻼF: faith? thinking [Dewey]?

Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry.

The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips of her child.

I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us.

We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.

Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy their great virtues.

Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.

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

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
* ﻼF: NR

If you do not understand your friend under all conditions you will never understand him.
ﻼF: RC

We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.
ﻼF: Project Hail Mary