QuoteProject
A truly religious man does not embrace a religion; and he who embraces one has no religion.
Khalil Gibran
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True spirituality transcends specific religious practices or beliefs.

This quote by Khalil Gibran suggests that genuine religiousness is not confined to institutional beliefs or practices but is instead a personal, profound experience of the divine. Embracing a religion often implies a rigid adherence to doctrines, while a truly religious person experiences spirituality in a more fluid and universal way, reflecting a deeper connection beyond labels and boundaries.

Themes

ReligionSpiritualityBeliefPhilosophyTranscendence

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about spirituality vs. organized religion, this quote can illustrate the idea of personal belief.

More from Khalil Gibran

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.
Khalil GibranRead
Be patient, for it is from doubt that knowledge is born.
Khalil GibranRead
Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Khalil GibranRead
God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.
Khalil GibranRead
Happiness is a vine that takes root and grows within the heart, never outside it.
Khalil GibranRead
Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow.
Khalil GibranRead

Similar quotes

The idea that God could only forgive our sins by having his son tortured to death as a scapegoat is surely, from an objective point of view, a deeply unpleasant idea. If God wanted to forgive us our sins, why didn't he just forgive them? Why did he have to have his son tortured?
Richard DawkinsRead
Memory is the only afterlife I have ever believed in. But the forgetting inside us cannot be stopped. We are programmed to betray.
Michael IgnatieffRead
Obscenity only comes in when the mind despises and fears the body, and the body hates and resists the mind.
D. H. LawrenceRead
If you get angry easily, it may be because the seed of anger in you has been watered frequently over many years, and unfortunately you have allowed it or even encouraged it to be watered.
Nhat HanhRead
I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed.
Anna Deavere SmithRead
We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we apeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seems to us so rational.
T. S. EliotRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.