The Prophet

Rating:
Summary: Bring out the audio CD version!
Review: I 've read this book so many times and never tired of reading it over and over again when I need to remind myself that I am only human. A food for the soul. I own the hardcover version now. But what is so disappointing is , why is it until now that the audio version is still in cassette tape. Come on! I even threw my Nakamichi Dragon away years ago. One of the best and most expensive cassette tape players ever made, just to make way for my dvd/cd and md players. Nobody owns a cassette player anymore. It is about time to bring out the CD.

Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorite books of all time
Review: This is one of the best, most inspiring philosophy/poetry books ever written! I have read it over and over, though never tire of it. It is a great reminder for what's most important in life and puts everything in perspective. My favorite 'chapters' are Love, Marriage, Children and The first look. I am a romantic though, so the other chapters may appeal to you more....;-) Absolutely classic and timeless. Perfectly stands the test of time. My personal copy is from 1948 and is one of my favorite treasures.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic that is Easily Accesible to most readers.
Review: I have had this on my list for years to read but I was not as impressed or enraptured as I thought I would be.

The first 20 pages and the last 10 are the most insightful in my mind. The prose poem reads a bit like a New Age bible

The author seems to compile the standards of New Age (particularly Buddhist) thought in a different guise. If this was the first Eastern mystical book you had read I believe you would find it more insightfult than I did.

I will give praise for my favorite quote, however, "For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly."

Ah, it will make you think.

Rating:
Summary: lyrically evokes your finest self
Review: "Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'"
--Kahlil Gibran

As you read, Gibran's poetry brings spiritual and visual beauty to life within you. Gibran is justly famous for rich metaphors that brilliantly highlight the pursuit of Truth and Goodness amidst all the darkness and light of human nature.

This is a book to read alone or with a partner, to give and receive, to go back to again and again.

Note: the excerpts available in Amazon's "Search This Book" facility unfortunately do not do "The Prophet" justice, since only the book's introduction is included, whereas the wisdom does not begin unfolding until a bit later. Therefore I've taken the liberty of including here another excerpt which more properly demonstrates the gentle power of Gibran's writing.

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And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
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 your 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.

Rating:
Summary: Chapters and Chapters of Insight and Revelation
Review: This book was the first and only I've read by Kahlil Gibran. Every chapter offers insight and philosophy on almost every subject that a person can think about. From death to love to marriage to friendship Kahlil Gibran offers a very sensitive view of all aspects of life. I've reread it many times.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: It's a thin book which has deep thoughts about topics like love, generosity, death, prayer, etc. It can be read again and again because it is thin while at the sametime it contains so many words of wisdon.

Rating:
Summary: Real Prophet
Review: Yet his years among us were so short, Gibran managed to reveal a wisdom, a philosophy, a spirituality and a vision that will change our understanding of life itself.
The Prophet deals with life and all its aspects, a book that will take you to the deep secrets of life's heart, another dimension of seeing the human heart and the human mind, another dimension of living.

Rating:
Summary: My Bible...
Review: My father has this huge book collection and I remember I was around 12 when I found this book amidst a sea of books and I thought it was pretty small, so I read it in one sit...It changed my life.
It talks about life, love, friendship, death, etc. All of these answers that you spend your entire life searching for...are in this book. It tells you all of these things that you already know about life, but somehow we keep in the back of our heads so we don't have to do the right thing, as if ignoring them will make us more human by default. There is no place that I go that this book doesn't follow me.
I remember in college having this teacher that I despised so much and the class was talking about their favorite book and when it came my turn I said "The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran" and she got all excited too and said "That's my favorite book too, it's like my Bible"...I remember thinking "How can I have something that is so important to me in common with someone that I despise?"...I guess that's the thing about life...I will never forget that or her...