115 Quotes & Sayings By Rabindranath Tagore

Unending LoveI seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times.. In life after life, in age after age, forever. My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs, That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms, In life after life, in age after age, forever. Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain, It's ancient tale of being apart or together. As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge, Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time. You become an image of what is remembered forever. You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount. At the heart of time, love of one for another. We have played along side millions of lovers, Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting, the distressful tears of farewell, Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever. Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you The love of all man's days both past and forever: Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life. The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours -And the songs of every poet past and forever. Rabindranath Tagore

Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight. Rabindranath Tagore

I thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power, that the path before me was closed, that provisions were exhausted, and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity, but I find that thy will knows no end in me, and when old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart, and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders. Rabindranath Tagore

Religion is not a fractional thing that can be doled out in fixed weekly or daily measures as one among various subjects in the school syllabus. It is the truth of our complete being, the consciousness of our personal relationship with the infinite; it is the true center of gravity of our life. This we can attain during our childhood by daily living in a place where the truth of the spiritual world is not obscured by a crowd of necessities assuming artificial importance; where life is simple, surrounded by fullness of leisure, by ample space and pure air and profound peace of nature; and where men live with a perfect faith in the eternal life before them. Rabindranath Tagore

Children are living beings - more living than grown-up people who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love. Rabindranath Tagore

His love for me seemed to overflow my limits by its flood of wealth and service. But my necessity was more for giving than foe receiving; for love is a vagabond, who can make his flowers bloom in the wayside dust, better than in the crystal jars kept in the drawing-room. Rabindranath Tagore

Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed. I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room. The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted. Rabindranath Tagore

In learning a language, when from mere words we reach the laws of words, we have gained a great deal. But if we stop at that point and concern ourselves only with the marvels of the formation of a language, seeking the hidden reason of all its apparent caprices, we do not reach that end, for grammar is not literature… When we come to literature, we find that, though it conforms to the rules of grammar, it is yet a thing of joy; it is freedom itself. The beauty of a poem is bound by strict laws, yet it transcends them. The laws are its wings. They do not keep it weighed down. They carry it to freedom. Its form is in law, but its spirit is in beauty. Law is the first step toward freedom, and beauty is the complete liberation which stands on the pedestal of law. Beauty harmonizes in itself the limit and the beyond — the law and the liberty. Rabindranath Tagore

I have on my table a violin string. It is free to move in any direction I like. If I twist one end, it responds; it is free. But it is not free to sing. So I take it and fix it into my violin. I bind it and when it is bound, it is free for the first time to sing. Rabindranath Tagore

The time has come when I must divest Bimala of all the ideal decorations with which I decked her. It was owing to my own weakness that I indulged in such idolatry. I was too greedy. I created an angel of Bimala, in order to exaggerate my own enjoyment. But Bimala is what she is. It is preposterous to expect that she should assume the role of an angel for my pleasure. The Creator is under no obligation to supply me with angels, just because I have an avidity for imaginary perfection. . Rabindranath Tagore

We women are weak, " replied Bimala. "So I suppose we must join in the conspiracy of the weak."" Women weak! " I exclaimed with a laugh. "Men belaud you as delicate and fragile, so as to delude you into thinking yourselves weak. But it is you women who are strong. Men make a great outward show of their so-called freedom, but those who know their inner minds are aware of their bondage. They havemanufactured scriptures with their own hands to bind themselves; with their very idealism they have made golden fetters of women to wind round their body and mind. If men had not that extraordinary faculty of entangling themselves in meshes of their own contriving, nothing could have kept them bound. But as foryou women, you have desired to conceive reality with body and soul. You have given birth to reality. You have suckled reality at your breasts. . Rabindranath Tagore

I have never been able to make out, " I began, "why women are so shy about being caught reading poetry. We men--lawyers, mechanics, or what not--may well feel ashamed. If we must read poetry, it should be at dead of night, within closed doors. But you women are so akin to poesy. The Creator Himself is a lyric poet, and Jayadeva must have practised the divine art seated at His feet. Rabindranath Tagore

Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the Universal Being; Truth the perfect comprehension of the Universal Mind. We individuals approach it through our own mistakes and blunders, through our accumulated experiences, through our illumined consciousness – how, otherwise, can we know Truth? Rabindranath Tagore

We cannot see Beauty till we let go our hold of it. It was Buddha who conquered the world, not Alexander - this is untrue when stated in dry prose - oh when shall we be able to sing it? When shall all these most intimate truths of the universe overflow the pages of printed books and leap out in a sacred stream like the Ganges from the Gangotrie? Rabindranath Tagore

When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest. When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king. When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder. Rabindranath Tagore

I have felt that you have been able to assimilate these secrets into your life, and the truth which lies in the beauty of all things has passed into your souls. A mere knowledge of things can be had in a short enough time, but their spirit can only be acquired by centuries of training and self-control. Rabindranath Tagore

I sat wondering: Why is there always this deep shade of melancholy over the fields arid river banks, the sky and the sunshine of our country? And I came to the conclusion that it is because with us Nature is obviously the more important thing. The sky is free, the fields limitless; and the sun merges them into one blazing whole. In the midst of this, man seems so trivial. He comes and goes, like the ferry-boat, from this shore to the other; the babbling hum of his talk, the fitful echo of his song, is heard; the slight movement of his pursuit of his own petty desires is seen in the world's market-places: but how feeble, how temporary, how tragically meaningless it all seems amidst the immense aloofness of the Universe! The contrast between the beautiful, broad, unalloyed peace of Nature–calm, passive, silent, unfathomable, –and our own everyday worries–paltry, sorrow-laden, strife-tormented, puts me beside myself as I keep staring at the hazy, distant, blue line of trees which fringe the fields across the river. Where Nature is ever hidden, and cowers under mist and cloud, snow and darkness, there man feels himself master; he regards his desires, his works, as permanent; he wants to perpetuate them, he looks towards posterity, he raises monuments, he writes biographies; he even goes the length of erecting tombstones over the dead. So busy is he that he has not time to consider how many monuments crumble, how often names are forgotten! . Rabindranath Tagore

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. Rabindranath Tagore

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. Rabindranath Tagore

Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation. Rabindranath Tagore

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. Rabindranath Tagore

It was the Kojagar full moon, and I was slowly pacing the riverside conversing with myself. It could hardly be called a conversation, as I was doing all the talking and my imaginary companion all the listening. The poor fellow had no chance of speaking up for himself, for was not mine the power to compel him helplessly to answer like a fool? But what a night it was! How often have I tried to write of such, but never got it done! There was not a line of ripple on the river; and from away over there, where the farthest shore of the distant main stream is seen beyond the other edge of the midway belt of sand, right up to this shore, glimmers a broad band of moonlight. Not a human being, not a boat in sight; not a tree, nor blade of grass on the fresh-formed island sand-bank. It seemed as though a desolate moon was rising upon a devastated earth; a random river wandering through a lifeless solitude; a long-drawn fairy-tale coming to a close over a deserted world, –all the kings and the princesses, their ministers and friends and their golden castles vanished, leaving the Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers and the Unending Moor, over which the adventurous princes fared forth, wanly gleaming in the pale moonlight. I was pacing up and down like the last pulse-beats of this dying world. Every one else seemed to be on the opposite shore–the shore of life–where the British Government and the Nineteenth Century hold sway, and tea and cigarettes. . Rabindranath Tagore

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. Rabindranath Tagore

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

Those who wish to sit, shut their eyes, and meditate to know if the world's true or lies, may do so. It's their choice. But I meanwhilewith hungry eyes that can't be satisfiedshall take a look at the world in broad daylight. Rabindranath Tagore

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

Love is an endless mystery, because there is no reasonable cause that could explain it. Rabindranath Tagore

When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing. Rabindranath Tagore

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

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

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. Rabindranath Tagore

He who wants to do good, knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gates open. Rabindranath Tagore

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. Rabindranath Tagore

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. Rabindranath Tagore

Adharmenaidhate tabat, tato bhadrani pashyati, tatah sapatnan jayati, - samulastu vinashyati. In unrightousness they prosper, in it they find their good, through it they defeat their enemies, - but they perish at the root. Rabindranath Tagore

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

I would have you come into the heart of the outer world and meet reality. Merely going on with your household duties, living your life in the world of household conventions and the drudgery of household tasks - you were not made for that! If we meet, and recognize each other, in the real world, then only will our love be true. Rabindranath Tagore

A day came when all the rebel in me knew itself beaten, and then my whole nature bowed down in humble resignation in the dust. And then I saw... I saw that he was as incomparable in beauty as he was in terror. I was saved, I was rescued. Rabindranath Tagore

To thee, to thee, my fire! Thou hast been burning in my heart all these futile years. If my life were a piece of gold it would come out of its trial brighter, but it is a trodden turf of grass, and nothing remains of it but this handful of ashes. Rabindranath Tagore

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. Rabindranath Tagore

The Taj Mahal rises above the banks of the river like a solitary tear suspended on the cheek of time. Rabindranath Tagore

My day is done, and I am like a boat drawn on the beach, listening to the dance-music of the tide in the evening. Rabindranath Tagore

These paper boats of mine are meant to dance on the ripples of hours, and not reach any destination. Rabindranath Tagore

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[.] Rabindranath Tagore

The world by day is like European music; a flowing concourse of vast harmony, composed of concord and discord and many disconnected fragments. And the night world is our Indian music; one pure, deep and tender raga. Rabindranath Tagore

Spurious fame spreads from tongue to tongue like the fog of the early dawn before the sun rises. Rabindranath Tagore

We are in misery because we are creatures of self - the self that is unyielding and narrow, that reflects no light, that is blind to the infinite. Our self is loud with its own discordant clamour - it is not the tuned harp whose chords vibrate with the music of the eternal. Sighs of discontent and weariness of failure, idle regrets for the past and anxieties for the future are troubling our shallow hearts because we have not found our souls, and the self-revealing spirit has not been manifest within us. Hence our cry. . Rabindranath Tagore

If only they let me, I'll go right into the dense forest where you can't find your way. And where the honey-sipping hummingbird rocks himself on the end of the thinnest branch, I will flower out as a champa. Rabindranath Tagore

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

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

He only may chastise who loves. Rabindranath Tagore

The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist. Rabindranath Tagore

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

Men are cruel but man is kind. Rabindranath Tagore

Do not say "It is morning " and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name. Rabindranath Tagore

The soil in return for her service keeps the tree tied to her the sky asks nothing and leaves it free. Rabindranath Tagore

The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough. Rabindranath Tagore

Time is a wealth of change but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth. Rabindranath Tagore

Not hammer strokes but dance of the water sings the pebbles into perfection. Rabindranath Tagore

With begging and scrambling we find very little but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more. Rabindranath Tagore

I have observed on board a steamer how men and women easily give way to their instinct for flirtation because water has the power of washing away our sense of responsibility and those who on land resemble the oak in their firmness behave like floating seaweed when on the sea. Rabindranath Tagore

The butterfly counts not months but moments And has time enough. Rabindranath Tagore

Man is worse than an animal when he is an animal. Rabindranath Tagore

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom. Rabindranath Tagore

Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it. Rabindranath Tagore

Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. Rabindranath Tagore

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. Rabindranath Tagore

Death is not extinguishing the light it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. Rabindranath Tagore

Music fills the infinite between two souls. Rabindranath Tagore

Age considers youth ventures. Rabindranath Tagore

Do not say, 'It is morning, ' and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name. Rabindranath Tagore

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

He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good. Rabindranath Tagore

Those who own much have much to fear. Rabindranath Tagore

Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror. Rabindranath Tagore

Facts are many, but the truth is one. Rabindranath Tagore

The water in a vessel is sparkling the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear the great truth has great silence. Rabindranath Tagore

To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth. Rabindranath Tagore

If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out. Rabindranath Tagore

Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law. Rabindranath Tagore

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it. Rabindranath Tagore