Kahlil Gibran: On Reason and Passion

Reason and Passion from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield upon which your reason and your judgment waged war against your passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul,

That I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody?

But how shall I,

Unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers,

Nay,

The lovers of all your elements?

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.

For reason ruling alone is a force confining,

And passion unattended is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore,

Let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion that it may sing,

And let it direct your passion with reason that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection,

And like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite,

Even as you would two love guests in your house.

Surely you would not honor one guest above the other,

For he who is more mindful of one loses the love and faith of both.

Along the hills,

When you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars,

Sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows,

Then let your heart say in silence,

God rests in reason.

And when the storm comes and the mighty wind shakes the forest,

And thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky,

Then let your heart say in awe,

God moves in passion.

And since you are a breath in God's sphere and a leaf in God's forest,

You too should rest in reason and move in passion.