The Forerunner quotes
The lines readers remember from The Forerunner, by Kahlil Gibran.
29 quotes · About the book
Standout lines
You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self.
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You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self.
And that self too shall be a foundation.
Countless are the eagles who descend from the upper air to live with moles that they may know the secrets of the earth.
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For who would not leave a kingdom for a forest where the seasons sing and dance ceaselessly? Many are those who have given their kingdom for less than solitude and the sweet fellowship of aloneness.
Countless are the eagles who descend from the upper air to live with moles that they may know the secrets of the earth.
There are those who renounce the kingdom of dreams that they may not seem distant from the dreamless. And those who renounce the kingdom of nakedness and cover their souls that others may not be ashamed in beholding truth uncovered and beauty unveiled.
Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking; but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.
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And he answered saying, “
Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking; but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.
”
But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.
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Then the traveller was much astonished. At last he cried, “My friends, because my horse is stolen, you have hastened one and all to tell me my faults and my shortcomings.
But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.
”
The man’s conscience woke and smote him with remorse; and he repented having stolen the melon.
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He opened it and found it still unripe.
The man’s conscience woke and smote him with remorse; and he repented having stolen the melon.
For he knew in his heart that love humiliated in its nakedness is greater than love that seeks triumph in disguise; and he was ashamed.
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After saying these things the Forerunner covered his face with his hands and wept bitterly.
For he knew in his heart that love humiliated in its nakedness is greater than love that seeks triumph in disguise; and he was ashamed.
But suddenly he raised his head, and like one waking from sleep he outstretched his arms and said, “Night is over, and we children of night must die when dawn comes leaping upon the hills; and out of our ashes a mightier love shall rise.
All quotes
Jump to a chapter
- Prologue
- The King-Hermit
- The Lion’s Daughter
- The Saint
- The Plutocrat
- The Greater Self
- War and the Small Nations
- Critics
- Poets
- The Weather-Cock
- The King of Aradus
- Out of My Deeper Heart
- Knowledge and Half-Knowledge
- “Said a Sheet of Snow-White Paper …”
- The Scholar and the Poet
- Values
- Other Seas
- Repentance
- Beyond My Solitude
- The Last Watch
Prologue
You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self.
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You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self.
And that self too shall be a foundation.
We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.
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Always have we been our own forerunners, and always shall we be. And all that we have gathered and shall gather shall be but seeds for fields yet unploughed.
We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.
When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there, a wandering desire. Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born. And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.
Yet you are not more, shining, than I, shone upon.
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And now we are in God’s hands. You are a sun in His right hand and I an earth in His left hand.
Yet you are not more, shining, than I, shone upon.
And we, sun and earth, are but the beginning of a greater sun and a greater earth. And always shall we be the beginning.
The King-Hermit
Countless are the eagles who descend from the upper air to live with moles that they may know the secrets of the earth.
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For who would not leave a kingdom for a forest where the seasons sing and dance ceaselessly? Many are those who have given their kingdom for less than solitude and the sweet fellowship of aloneness.
Countless are the eagles who descend from the upper air to live with moles that they may know the secrets of the earth.
There are those who renounce the kingdom of dreams that they may not seem distant from the dreamless. And those who renounce the kingdom of nakedness and cover their souls that others may not be ashamed in beholding truth uncovered and beauty unveiled.
The Lion’s Daughter
Daily from your birth she has slain you and you know it not.
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And the cat purred, “
Daily from your birth she has slain you and you know it not.
”
Only a slave restores a crown that has fallen.
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And the cat purred, “
Only a slave restores a crown that has fallen.
”
Fan on, fan on, stupids. You fan but the fire that consumes you.
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And the cat purred, “
Fan on, fan on, stupids. You fan but the fire that consumes you.
”
The Saint
It is true he no longer believes in me. But he went away much comforted.
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And the saint answered, “
It is true he no longer believes in me. But he went away much comforted.
”
The Plutocrat
Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking; but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.
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And he answered saying, “
Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking; but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.
”
The Greater Self
If you were still wiser you would not choose to be king.
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And the naked man said, “
If you were still wiser you would not choose to be king.
”
And he saw there but himself crowned.
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And the king roused, and straightway he looked into the mirror.
And he saw there but himself crowned.
War and the Small Nations
Is not the vast sky large enough for both of them?
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“How strange, my child, that these two noble birds should attack one another.
Is not the vast sky large enough for both of them?
Pray, my little one, pray in your heart that God may make peace between your winged brothers.”
Critics
But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.
Show the passage
Then the traveller was much astonished. At last he cried, “My friends, because my horse is stolen, you have hastened one and all to tell me my faults and my shortcomings.
But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.
”
Poets
Now therefore must I drink it, that it may sharpen my senses and raise me to your blissful heights.
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I am too dull of sight and of hearing and of touch. I cannot see the fragrance of this wine, nor hear its song, nor feel the beating of its wings. I perceive but the wine itself.
Now therefore must I drink it, that it may sharpen my senses and raise me to your blissful heights.
”
The Weather-Cock
And the wind did not answer. It only laughed in space.
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Said the weather-cock to the wind, “How tedious and monotonous you are! Can you not blow any other way but in my face? You disturb my God-given stability.”
And the wind did not answer. It only laughed in space.
The King of Aradus
Pity, my friends! Had you found the king drunk, surely he would have granted you your petition.
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Then he said, “
Pity, my friends! Had you found the king drunk, surely he would have granted you your petition.
”
Out of My Deeper Heart
Out of my deeper heart a bird rose and flew skyward.
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Out of my deeper heart a bird rose and flew skyward.
Higher and higher did it rise, yet larger and larger did it grow.
How can a prisoner within the temple behold its golden domes?
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How shall I turn this sea within me into mist, and move with you in space immeasurable?
How can a prisoner within the temple behold its golden domes?
How shall the heart of a fruit be stretched to envelop the fruit also?
Knowledge and Half-Knowledge
Each of you is right, and none of you is wrong. The moving is in the log and the water and our thinking also.
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And the fourth frog said, “
Each of you is right, and none of you is wrong. The moving is in the log and the water and our thinking also.
”
“Said a Sheet of Snow-White Paper …”
And the snow-white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste forever—pure and chaste—and empty.
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The ink-bottle heard what the paper was saying, and it laughed in its dark heart; but it never dared to approach her. And the multicoloured pencils heard her also, and they too never came near her.
And the snow-white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste forever—pure and chaste—and empty.
The Scholar and the Poet
Pity thou canst not sing. Pity, pity, my wise one, thou canst not fly.
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And the lark flew away singing, “
Pity thou canst not sing. Pity, pity, my wise one, thou canst not fly.
”
Values
How much life this money means! How can anyone give all this for a dead carved stone buried and undreamed of in the earth for a thousand years?
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And as the man walked home with his money he thought, and he said to himself, “
How much life this money means! How can anyone give all this for a dead carved stone buried and undreamed of in the earth for a thousand years?
”
Other Seas
What proof have you of other lives in other seas?
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The fish replied, “Pure fancy! Pure fancy! When you know that everything that leaves our sea by even an inch, and stays out of it, dies.
What proof have you of other lives in other seas?
”
Repentance
The man’s conscience woke and smote him with remorse; and he repented having stolen the melon.
Show the passage
He opened it and found it still unripe.
The man’s conscience woke and smote him with remorse; and he repented having stolen the melon.
Beyond My Solitude
Beyond my solitude is another solitude, and to him who dwells therein my aloneness is a crowded marketplace and my silence a confusion of sounds.
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Beyond my solitude is another solitude, and to him who dwells therein my aloneness is a crowded marketplace and my silence a confusion of sounds.
Too young am I and too restless to seek that above-solitude. The voices of yonder valley still hold my ears, and its shadows bar my way and I cannot go.
How shall my leaves fly singing upon the wind unless my roots shall wither in the dark?
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And how shall I become my freer self unless I slay my burdened selves, or unless all men become free?
How shall my leaves fly singing upon the wind unless my roots shall wither in the dark?
How shall the eagle in me soar against the sun until my fledglings leave the nest which I with my own beak have built for them?
The Last Watch
You would drink love from a cup, but not from a surging river.
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“But alas! it was the overabundance of my heart that turned you from me.
You would drink love from a cup, but not from a surging river.
You would hear love’s faint murmur, but when love shouts you would muffle your ears.
Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names.
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“
Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names.
“It was love lashed by its own self that spoke. It was pride half slain that fluttered in the dust. It was my hunger for your love that raged from the housetop, while my own love, kneeling in silence, prayed your forgiveness.
For he knew in his heart that love humiliated in its nakedness is greater than love that seeks triumph in disguise; and he was ashamed.
Show the passage
After saying these things the Forerunner covered his face with his hands and wept bitterly.
For he knew in his heart that love humiliated in its nakedness is greater than love that seeks triumph in disguise; and he was ashamed.
But suddenly he raised his head, and like one waking from sleep he outstretched his arms and said, “Night is over, and we children of night must die when dawn comes leaping upon the hills; and out of our ashes a mightier love shall rise.
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