The Prophet

On Time

Reading settings

Text size

20
Line spacing
Column width
Typeface
Theme

Contents

  1. The Coming of the Ship
  2. On Love
  3. On Marriage
  4. On Children
  5. On Giving
  6. On Eating and Drinking
  7. On Work
  8. On Joy and Sorrow
  9. On Houses
  10. On Clothes
  11. On Buying and Selling
  12. On Crime and Punishment
  13. On Laws
  14. On Freedom
  15. On Reason and Passion
  16. On Pain
  17. On Self-Knowledge
  18. On Teaching
  19. On Friendship
  20. On Talking
  21. On Time
  22. On Good and Evil
  23. On Prayer
  24. On Pleasure
  25. On Beauty
  26. On Religion
  27. On Death
  28. The Farewell

Keyboard shortcuts

  • ← / →previous or next chapter
  • j / kscroll down or up
  • bbookmark this place
  • fturn focus mode on or off
  • ?show this list

Quote card

Preparing the card…

The Prophet

On Time

Chapter 21 of 281 min

And an astronomer said, Master, what of Time?

And he answered:

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.

Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness,

And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.

And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.

Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?

And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?

And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,

And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

End of chapter