"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country". Most people associate this quote with a speech made by US President John F Kennedy in 1961. In fact, it came from Gibran's "The Prophet" published in 1923, the work for which Gibran is best known and which has been translated into twenty languages.

Born in Bcharre in 1883, Gibran's fame and influence have spread, since his death in New York in 1931, far beyond the Middle East. His paintings, on display in the Kahlil Gibran Museum which was once his home, have been compared to the work of William Blake by Auguste Rodin, under whose tutelage he spent time in Paris. Gibran Khalil Gibran (Khalil was his father's name), was born and is buried in Bcharre. He was an artist, sculptor, poet and philosopher.