"The Prophet" By Khalil Gibran: On Talking

"You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts." This audio chapter is from the book "The Prophet" Khalil Gibran, on Talking. The scholar asks the prophet to speak of Talking and gets an answer full of awareness and beauty.

Transcript

On talking.

And then a scholar said,

Speak of talking.

And he answered saying,

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips.

And sound is a diversion and the pastime.

And in much of your talking thinking is half murdered.

For thought is a bird of space that in cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.

The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and their wood escape.

And there are those who talk and without knowledge of forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.

And there are those who have the truth within them,

But they tell it not in words.

And the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.

When you meet your friend on the roadside,

Or in the marketplace.

Let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.

Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear,

For his soul will keep the truth of your heart,

As the taste of the wine is remembered.

When the color is forgotten and the vessel is no more.