Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

that which is eternal within the moment only becomes shallow if spread out in time.

The question and the cry 'Oh, where?' melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance 'I am!'

Everything has sprung from immortal life and is vibrating with life, for life is immense!

God, the Great Giver, can open the whole universe to our gaze in the narrow space of a single land.

The echo mocks her origin to prove she is the original.

Other animals ran only when they had a reason, but the horse would run for no reason whatever, as if to run out of his own skin

Repentance is a gift of God's grace.

Bravery ceases to be bravery at a certain point, and becomes mere foolhardiness.

The trees come up to my window like the yearning voice of the dumb earth

We sit inert, like dead specimens of some museum, while lessons are pelted at us from on high, like hailstones on flowers.

There is no "next" after you are dead and gone from your own world.

By touching you may kill, by keeping away you may possess.

I am hidden in your heart, O Flower.

That which oppresses me, is it my soul trying to come out in the open, or the soul of the world knocking at my heart for entrance?

I will sit in the pupil of your eyes and that will carry your sight into the heart of the things

Alas, why are my nights all thus lost? Ah, why do I ever miss his sight whose breath touches my sleep?

Life's aspirations come in the guise of children.

Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy, and all my desires ripen into fruits of love.

To the birds you gave songs, the birds gave you songs in return. You gave me only a voice, yet asked for more, thus I sing.

Pessimism is a form of mental dipsomania; it disdains healthy nourishment, indulges in the strong drink of denunciation, and creates an artificial dejection which thirsts for a stronger draught.

Someone spilled the ink on the canvas. Now boasts: "I painted the night".

The thing which seems so glorious when viewed from the heights of the country's cause looks so muddy when seen from the bottom. One begins by getting angry and then feels disgusted.

I ask my destiny - what power is this That cruelly drives me onward without rest? My destiny says, "Look round!" I turn back and see It is I myself that is ever pushing me from behind.

The first flower that blossomed on this earth was an invitation to an unborn song.

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, butfor the heart to conquer it.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time.

YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side, 'said the dewdrop to the lake.

The small wisdom is like water in a glass:clear, transparent, pure.The great wisdom is like the water in the sea:dark, mysterious, impenetrable.

some see things as they are: others as they are” (p.82) ~CXCI

I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man

Life is indefinite--a bundle of contradictions. We men, with our ideas, strive to give it a particular shape by melting it into a particular mould--into the definiteness of success.

Free me as free is the forest fire, as is the thunder that laughs aloud and hurls defiance to darkness.

I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.

My husband was very eager to take me out of purdah. One day I said to him, "What do I want with the outside world?""The outside world may want you, " he replied.

Truth in her dress finds facts too tight. In fiction she moves with ease.

A fancy comes to me--that desire can never attain its object--it need never attain it.

The winds of grace are blowing all the time, but it is you that must raise your sails.

Read books when you are free, read minds when you are'nt....but do read...

When at last we have to die it will be time enough to get cold.While we are on fire let us seethe and boil.

Man's poverty is abysmal, his wants are endless till he becomes truly conscious of his soul. Till then, the world to him is in a state of flux - a phantasm that is and is not.

When a man sleeps he is shut up within the narrow activities of his physical life. He lives, but he knows not the varied relations of his life to his surroundings, - therefore he knows not himself.

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

Now that a full flood of music has swept over our country, let Nikhil practise his scales, while we rouse the land with our cracked voices[.]

God respects me when I work but loves me when I sing.

Where the old tracks are lost new country is revealed with its wonders.

He only may chastise who loves.

The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist.

God the Great Giver can open the whole universe to our gaze in the narrow space of a single lane.