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United States writer (born in Lebanon) (1883-1931) Gibran was born in the town of Bsharri in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Empire (modern day Lebanon), to Khalil Gibran and Kamila Gibran (Rahmeh). As a young man Gibran emigrated with his family to the United States, where he studied art and began his literary career, writing in both English and Arabic. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero. A member of the New York Pen League, he is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again especially in the 1960s counterculture. Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi.

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My friends and my road-fellows, pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress. Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block. Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

– Kahlil Gibran

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4 Comments
  • Kimani Chomba
    Kimani Chomba
    Kahil Gibran was one of those blessed and great persons. He would say you cannt understand white without understanding the black. You can not understand and see light without darkness. Everything in life you can not understand the positives without the negatives. 
    LikeReply4 years ago
  • Kimani Chomba
    Kimani Chomba
    Many see but donnt comprehend or interprate.
    LikeReply4 years ago
  • Kimani Chomba
    Kimani Chomba
    Truely there are few persons who talk but many donnt listen.
    LikeReply4 years ago
  • Rashid Hunt
    Rashid Hunt
    I love it.
    LikeReply4 years ago

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