the amazing Kahlil Gibran

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all. 

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. 

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 and is refreshed.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain? 

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.  

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

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.

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.

Mother: the most beautiful word on the lips of mankind.

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.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.  

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. 

 
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.