Rabindranath Tagore

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

“The truth comes as conqueror only because we have lost the art of receiving it as guest.”

“The idea of the Nation is one of the most powerful anaesthetics that Man has invented. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can carry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking without being in the least aware of its moral perversion,-in fact feeling dangerously resentful if it is pointed out.”

“Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.”

“In the heart of Europe runs the purest stream of human love, of justice, of spirit of self-sacrifice for higher ideals. The Christian culture of centuries has sunk deep in her life's core. In Europe we have seen noble minds who have ever stood up for the rights of man irrespective of colour and creed.”

“What India has been, the whole world is now. The whole world is becoming one country through scientific facility. And the moment is arriving when you also must find a basis of unity which is not political. If India can offer to the world her solution, it will be a contribution to humanity. There is only one history — the history of Man. All national histories are merely chapters in the larger one.”

“According to the Upanishads, the complete aspect of Truth is in the reconciliation on the finite and the infinite, of everchanging things and the eternal spirit of perfection. When in our life and work the harmony between these two is broken, then either our life is thinned into a shadow, or it becomes gross with accumulations.”

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

“My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.”

“I thought that my invincible power would hold the world captive, leaving me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hard strokes. When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip.”

“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.”

“The smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps — does anybody know where it was born? Yes, there is a rumor that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning.”

“In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play, and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.”

“All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit — the spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history.”

“The human soul is on its journey from the law to love, from discipline to liberation, from the moral plane to the spiritual. Buddha preached the discipline of self-restraint and moral life; it is a complete acceptance of law. But this bondage of law cannot be an end by itself; by mastering it thoroughly we acquire the means of getting beyond it. It is going back to Brahma, to the infinite love, which is manifesting itself through the finite forms of law.”

“Knowledge is partial, because our intellect is an instrument, it is only a part of us, it can give us information about things which can be divided and analysed, and whose properties can be classified part by part. But Brahma is perfect, and knowledge which is partial can never be a knowledge of him.”

“The light of the stars travels millions of miles to reach the earth, but it cannot reach our hearts — so many millions of miles further off are we!”

“Every person is worthy of an infinite wealth of love — the beauty of his soul knows no limit.”

“When sorrow is deepest...then the surface crust is pierced, and consolation wells up, and all the forces of patience and courage are banded together to do their duty. Thus great suffering brings with it the power of great endurance. So while we are cowards before petty troubles, great sorrows make us brave by rousing our truer manhood.”

“The world is ever new to me; like an old friend loved through this and former lives, the acquaintance between us is both long and deep.”

“One of the many suppressed longings of creation which cry after fulfilment is for neglected joys within reach; while we are busy pursuing chimerical impossibilities we famish our lives...The emptiness left by easy joys, untasted, is ever growing in my life. And the day may come when I shall feel that, could I but have the past back, I would strive no more after the unattainable, but drain to the full these little, unsought, everyday joys which life offers.”

“By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”

“It sometimes strikes me how immensely fortunate I am that each day should take its place in my life, either reddened with the rising and setting sun, or refreshingly cool with deep, dark clouds, or blooming like a white flower in the moonlight. What untold wealth!”

“Reason tells us that creation never can be perfectly happy. So long as it is incomplete it must put up with imperfection and sorrow. It can only be perfect when it ceases to be creation, and is God. Do our prayers dare go so far?”

“To Indians the idea of the transmigration of the soul from animal to man, and man to animal, does not seem strange, and so from our scriptures pity for all sentient creatures has not been banished as a sentimental exaggeration. When I am in close touch with Nature in the country, the Indian in me asserts itself and I cannot remain coldly indifferent to the abounding joy of life throbbing within the soft down-covered breast of a single tiny bird.”

“If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.”

“That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.”

“The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing, But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.”

“God finds himself by creating.”

“Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater than your idol.”

“Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.”

“In Art, man reveals himself and not his objects.”

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”

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

“Never be afraid of the moments—thus sings the voice of the everlasting.”

“We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.”

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”

“He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.”

“Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.”

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

“Asks the Possible to the Impossible, "Where is your dwelling place?" "In the dreams of the impotent," comes the answer.”

“You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

“We gain freedom when we have paid the full price.”

“If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.”

“The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful.”

“Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.”

“When we rejoice in our fulness, then we can part with our fruits with joy.”

“The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words that are clear; the great truth has great silence.”

“He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.”

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

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”

“Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it.”

“Night's darkness is a bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn.”

“Men are cruel, but Man is kind.”

“The fountain of death makes the still water of life play.”

“Those who have everything but thee, my God, laugh at those who have nothing but thyself.”

“Do not say, "It is morning," and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a new-born child that has no name.”

“Death belongs to life as birth does. The walk is in the raising of the foot as in the laying of it down.”

“WE live in this world when we love it.”

“Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love.”

“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.”

“Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer to shed rain or usher storm but to give colour to my sunset sky.”

“Let this be my last word, that I trust in thy love.”

“Ah me, why did they build my house by the road to the market town?”

“I am restless. I am athirst for faraway things. My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim distance. O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute! I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am bound in this spot evermore.”

“We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent; We do not raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope.”

“Please is frail like a dewdrop, while it laughs it dies. But sorrow is strong and abiding. Let sorrowful love wake in your eyes.”

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”

“My heart, the bird of the wilderness, has found its sky in your eyes.”

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”

“To the guests that must go, bid God's speed and brush away all traces of their steps.”

“when you came you cried and everybody smiled with joy; when you go smile and let the world cry for you.”

“The wise man warns me that life is but a dewdrop on the lotus leaf.”

“O Woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their own hearts … You are one-half woman and one-half dream.”

“In the world's audience hall, the simple blade of grass sits on the same carpet with the sunbeams, and the stars of midnight.”

“Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across a hundred years.”

“God seeks comrades and claims love, the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.”

“The child ever dwells in the mystery of ageless time, unobscured by the dust of history.”

“Jewel-Like the immortal but of the scintillating point of the moment.”

“While God waits for his temple to be built of love, men bring stones.”

“I touch God in my song with its waterfall.”

“Light finds her treasure of colours through the antagonism of clouds.”

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

“The one without second is emptiness, the other one makes it true.”

“Life's errors cry for the merciful beauty into a harmony with the whole.”

“Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellious, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization? … It is the constant harmony of chance and determination which makes it eternally new and living.”

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of”

“We live in the world when we love it.”

“In India, the measure of a singer's freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer's song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.”

“Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.”

“You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”

“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.”

“Age considers; youth ventures.”

“Those who own much have much to fear.”

“Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it.”

“He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.”

“Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.”

“What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.”

“The child who is decked with prince’s robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.”

“The young student sits with his head bent over his books, and his mind straying in youth's dreamland; where prose is prowling on the desk and poetry hiding in the heart.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

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

“Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.”

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

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

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

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

“Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.”

“Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.”

“Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.”

“Facts are many, but the truth is one.”

“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.”

“Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”

“I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.”

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

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

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”

“By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”

“Gray hairs are signs of wisdom if you hold your tongue, speak and they are but hairs, as in the young.”

“Trees are Earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.”

“By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”

“What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.”

“In Art, man reveals himself and not his objects.”

“Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.”

“Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.”

“He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.”

“You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”

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

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”

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

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

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

“when you came you cried and everybody smiled with joy; when you go smile and let the world cry for you.”

“Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.”

“The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.”

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

“Age considers; youth ventures.”

“Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it.”

“Music fills the infinite between two souls.”

“Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.”

“We gain freedom when we have paid the full price.”

“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.”

“We live in the world when we love it.”

“Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater than your idol.”

“The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.”

“If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.”

“From the solemn gloom of the temple children run out to sit in the dust, God watches them play and forgets the priest.”

“Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.”

“Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law.”

“The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.”

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

“Those who own much have much to fear.”

“The burden of the self is lightened with I laugh at myself.”

“Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.”

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”

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

“Let not the hours pass by in the dark. Kindle the lamp of love with thy life.”