QuoteProject
You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.
Khalil Gibran
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that when we ignore or turn away from what enlightens us, we only see the darker aspects of ourselves.

Khalil Gibran's quote emphasizes the idea that by turning our back on the light—symbolizing knowledge, truth, or enlightenment—we become aware only of our shadows, which represent fear, doubt, and negativity. It serves as a reminder of the importance of confronting and embracing our truths instead of succumbing to darkness or ignorance that occurs when we avoid enlightenment.

Themes

ShadowSunEnlightenmentTruthDarkness

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal growth, this quote could illustrate the importance of facing one’s fears.

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

But life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
People quickly grow accustomed to being the slaves of mystery.
Guillaume ApollinaireRead
I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Enjoy the elastic present, which can accommodate as little or as much as you want to put in there. Stretch it out, live inside of it.
Charles YuRead
Many introverts feel there's something wrong with them, and try to pass as extroverts. But whenever you try to pass as something you're not, you lose a part of yourself along the way. You especially lose a sense of how to spend your time.
Susan CainRead
We are here among you as seekers of refuge from our present-your future-a time of worldwide famine, exhausted fuel supplies, terminal poverty-the end of the capitalistic experiment. Once we came to understand the simpl...truth that earth's resources were limited, in fact soon to run out, the whole capitalistic illusion fell to pieces. Those of us who spoke this truth were denounced as heretics, as enemies of the prevailing economic faith. Like religious Dissenters of an earlier day.
Thomas PynchonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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