Quote#Children
Your children are not your children
Quote byKahlil Gibran · 1883–1931
English (original)
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.
— Kahlil Gibran
More from Kahlil Gibran
The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.
For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks." Thus I became a madman.
Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the goodness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he …
My enemy said to me, "Love your enemy." And I obeyed him and loved myself.
Let us disperse from our aloofness and serve the weak who made us strong, and cleanse the country in which we live. Let us teach this miserable nation to smile and rejoice with heaven's bounty and glory of life and freedom.
I know faces, because I look through the fabric my own eye weaves, and behold the reality beneath.