The Prophet covers many different subjects, the following are these:
Love asked by Almitra
“ Love possesses not nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love…and think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy directs your course…Love has no desire but to fulfill itself.”
Marriage asked again by Almitra
“Love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls…And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart.”
Children asked by a woman who held a babe against her bosom.
“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 to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.”
Giving asked by a Rich Man
“And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream…When you give of your self you truly give.”
Eating and Drinking asked by an old man, a keeper of an inn
“When you kill a beast say to him in your heart: ‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.’”
Work asked by a ploughman.
“And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret...Work is love made visible... It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.”
Joy and Sorrow asked by a women
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain…And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives?... Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.”
Time asked by a an astronomer
“Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness, And knows that yesterday is but to-day's memory and to-morrow is to-day's dream.”
Friends asked by a youth
“Your friend is your needs answered… When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence.”
Good and Evil asked by the elders
“For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?... You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil…And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.”
Reason and Passion asked by a Priestess
“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas… you too should rest in reason and move in passion.”
Beauty asked by poet
“Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied, And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy…It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear, But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears…People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.”
Death asked by Almitra
“For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one…Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
