“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.”

Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist

Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist. Active in the early 20th century, he is best known for The Prophet, a book first published in the United States in 1923. He was also regarded by many as a philosopher, though he did not accept that label himself. The Prophet became one of the best-selling books of all time and was translated into more than 100 languages, helping make his work widely known far beyond its original publication.