Khalil Gibran once said that people will never understand one another unless language is reduced to seven words.
This quote has been taken from his work of Poetry called “Sand and Foam”. Khalil Gibran uses the number “seven” very frequently in his work. In the same work he has used the number “seven” eleven times.
As I researched online I found that the number seven is sacred in most religions.
In the same work he also says:
“Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you.”
I wonder which half this quote that the Daily Prompt has given us today belongs to and whether we should really be trying to reduce the language to seven words. Maybe what he was trying to say was that to understand each other we should reduce the unnecessary words and get to the point. Just like when sending a signal, noise should be kept to a minimum, if at all.
And so I will keep this post short. I think you will get my point better.
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I think if someone says, people would only understand if their languages consist of seven words, then one might think that people are never understand. He probably thinks that any kind of spoken word is the mutual understanding in the way. So that we humans can understand us just beyond language. It’s actually a pretty pessimistic statement.
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Thank you for your post. I searched for the quote but found nothing. I didn’t know about the poem and the context. Now is easier to understand.
Glad I could be of some help! 🙂
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Good point!
🙂 Thanks!
I agree with you wholeheartedly. The world would be so much better if we just understood each other.
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