Postmodern Prophet?

Many will be familiar with Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), a Lebanese philosopher, writer, and painter, who wrote "The Prophet." There is a compilation of some of his thoughts, proverbs, and parables called "Sand and Foam." I share several quotes that I find really heralded many postmodern concepts and struggles. Perhaps there were more "postmodern prophets" in modernity that we realize.

*"How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth?"

*"I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward."

*"Should you really open your eyes and see, you would behold your image in all images. And should you open your ears and listen, you would hear your own voice in all voices."

*"Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth."

*"Inspiration will always sing; inspiration will never explain."

*"There is no struggle of soul and body save in the minds of those whose souls are asleep and whose bodies are out of tune."

*"Only great sorrow or great joy can reveal your truth. If you would be revealed you must either dance naked in the sun, or carry your cross."

*"Please do not whitewash your inherent faults with your acquired virtues. I would have the faults; they are like mine own."

*"Long ago there lived a Man who was crucified for being too loving and too lovable. And strange to relate I met him thrice yesterday. The first time He was asking a policeman not to take a prostitute to prison; the second time He was drinking wine with an outcast; and third time He was having a fist-fight with a promoter inside a church."

*"Pity is but half justice."

*"Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality. Should we all reveal our virtues we would also laugh for the same cause."

*"If it were not for our conception of weights and measures we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun."

*"There is neither religion nor science beyond beauty."

*"A fact is a truth unsexed."

*"There lies a green field between the scholar and the poet; should the scholar cross it he becomes a wise man; should the poet cross it, he becomes a prophet."

*"They say to me, 'You must needs choose between the pleasures of this world and the peace of the next world.' And I say to them, 'I have chosen both the delights of this world and the peace of the next. For I know in my heart that the Supreme Poet wrote but one poem, and it scans perfectly, and it also rhymes perfectly.'"