Kahlil Gibran

Who can depart from his pain and aloneness without regret?
Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.
It is not a garment I cast off this day, bit a skin that I tear with my own hands...
Yet I cannot tarry longer.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a Zealous one asking what you can do for your country.

Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me?
A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?

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

For this I bless you most.  You give much and know not that you give at all.

The sea that calls all things unto her cals me, and I must embark.

Like the seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Joy and sorrow are inseparable... Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

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.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.