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Who really said it

And God said, Love your enemy, and I obeyed Him and loved myself

Not Gibran’s wording — a misquote of his line Kahlil Gibran 1883–1931 · Lebanese-American poet, artist & author of The Prophet
Disputed In copyright

The thought is Gibran’s, but the popular wording is altered. His actual aphorism reads “My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy.’ And I obeyed him and loved myself” — the sting is that it is the enemy, not God, who gives the command. Wikiquote files the “And God said…” version under Misattributed as a paraphrase of that line, and it traces to the 1962 Ferris translation in Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“And God said, Love your enemy, and I obeyed Him and loved myself” Kahlil Gibran, Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran (trans. A. R. Ferris, 1962). The genuine line reads: “My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy.’ And I obeyed him and loved myself.” The popular “And God said…” version is a misquote.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Kahlil Gibran. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Anthony R. Ferris translation / Citadel Press (Kensington Publishing)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Kahlil Gibran — Lebanese-American poet, artist & author of The Prophet. Theme: "And God said, Love your enemy, and I obeyed Him and loved myself". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "And God said, Love your enemy, and I obeyed Him and loved myself". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The genuine line — and how it got rewritten

Author
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)
Work
Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran
Translation
Translated & edited from the Arabic by Anthony R. Ferris, Citadel Press, New York, 1962
Genuine wording
“My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy.’ And I obeyed him and loved myself.”

My enemy said to me, “Love your enemy.” And I obeyed him and loved myself.

The circulating version — “And God said, Love your enemy, and I obeyed Him and loved myself” — substitutes God for the enemy, which flips the meaning of the aphorism.

Kahlil Gibran on Wikiquote (sourced & misattributed sections)

How we traced it

  • Genuine line, sourced: Wikiquote lists “My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy.’ And I obeyed him and loved myself” from Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran.
  • Popular version = misattributed: the same Wikiquote page places “And God said, Love your enemy…” under Misattributed, calling it a paraphrase of the real line.
  • Translation provenance: the Internet Archive copy confirms the English wording comes from Anthony R. Ferris’s 1962 Citadel Press translation from the Arabic.
In copyright

Gibran died in 1931, but the specific English wording of this aphorism comes from Anthony R. Ferris’s 1962 translation, Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran (Citadel Press) — a 1962 work, so in copyright in the US. The popular “And God said…” rewording has no identifiable published source of its own.

Fact-check

A real Gibran line, quietly rewritten

This one is not a fabrication out of thin air — it is a genuine Gibran aphorism whose wording got changed as it spread. The change matters.

“And God said, Love your enemy…” Misquote

The version pinned to Gibran across social media and quote sites has God issue the command. Wikiquote lists exactly this form under its Misattributed heading, describing it as a paraphrase of Gibran’s actual line.

“My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy.’ And I obeyed him and loved myself.” Genuine

In the real aphorism it is the enemy who says “love your enemy” — and obeying means loving oneself. Swapping God for the enemy removes the irony that gives the line its bite. Sourced to Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran (Ferris trans., 1962).

Gibran wrote it — but as “My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy,’” not “God said.” See the sourced vs. misattributed entries on Wikiquote.

Context

Why the two words matter

Gibran’s aphorism is a small trap. The command “love your enemy” comes from the enemy’s own mouth — so to obey it literally is to love the person the enemy is telling you to love, which (in the twist) turns out to be yourself. It is a joke about self-love smuggled inside a piece of scripture-sounding advice.

Replace “my enemy” with “God” and the irony collapses: you get a sincere-sounding endorsement of self-care instead of Gibran’s sly paradox. That is why the rewrite spread so well on feel-good quote graphics — and why it is no longer quite what Gibran wrote.

In the real line it is the enemy, not God, who says “love your enemy.”

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Love Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Kahlil Gibran — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the genuine line as sourced and the “God said” version as misattributed.
Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran (1962)archive.org

Ferris’s 1962 Citadel Press translation from the Arabic, the source of the genuine wording.
Kahlil Gibran — Poetry Foundationpoetryfoundation.org

Biography of Gibran, one of the internet’s most quote-magnetized authors.
QuotePark entry (variant & misattribution note)quotepark.com

Records the genuine “My enemy said to me” wording and the “God said” variant, flagging possible misattribution.

The true author of the thought

Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran

1883–1931 · Lebanese-American poet, artist & author of The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer and painter, best known for The Prophet (1923). He wrote in both English and Arabic, and his aphorisms — terse, paradoxical one-liners — are among the most quoted (and most rewritten) lines online. This saying about loving one’s enemy is authentically his in substance, but the widely shared “God said” wording is a later alteration.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Kahlil Gibran, “My enemy said to me, ‘Love your enemy.’ And I obeyed him and loved myself,” in Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran, trans. and ed. Anthony R. Ferris (New York: Citadel Press, 1962).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘And God said, Love your enemy, and I obeyed Him and loved myself’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/and-god-said-love-your-enemy-and-i-obeyed-him-and-loved

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