Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

267 Sourced Quotes

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

Rabindranath Tagore
Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.

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

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

Rabindranath Tagore
No civilized society can thrive upon victims, whose humanity has been permanently mutilated.

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
Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.

Rabindranath Tagore
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.

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

Rabindranath Tagore
To tyrannize for the country is to tyrannize over the country

Rabindranath Tagore
Things in which we do not take joy are either a burden upon our minds to be got rid of at any cost; or they are useful, and therefore in temporary and partial relation to us, becoming burdensome when their utility is lost; or they are like wandering vagabonds, loitering for a moment on the outskirts of our recognition, and then passing on. A thing is only completely our own when it is a thing of joy to us.

Rabindranath Tagore
Life is perpetually creative because it contains in itself that surplus which ever overflows the boundaries of the immediate time and space, restlessly pursuing its adventure of expression in the varied forms of self-realization.

Rabindranath Tagore
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.

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

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

Rabindranath Tagore
The water vessel, taken as a vessel only, raises the question, "Why does it exist at all?" Through its fitness of construction, it offers the apology for its existence. But where it is a work of beauty it has no question to answer; it has nothing to do, but to be.

Rabindranath Tagore
Ah, thou hast made my heart captive in the endless meshes of thy music, my master!

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

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

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

Rabindranath Tagore
The past is always with us, for nothing that once was time can ever depart.

Rabindranath Tagore
O Beauty, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror.

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

Rabindranath Tagore
The weak can be terrible because they try furiously to appear strong.

Rabindranath Tagore
The delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear thy delight.

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

Rabindranath Tagore
Our scientific world is our world of reasoning. It has its greatness and uses and attractions. We are ready to pay homage due to it. But when it claims to have discovered the real world for us and laughs at the worlds of all simple-minded men, then we must say it is like a general grown intoxicated with his power, usurping the throne of his king

Rabindranath Tagore
When the heat and motion of blind impulses and passions distract it on all sides, we can neither give nor receive anything truly. But when we find our centre in our soul by the power of self-restraint, by the force that harmonizes all warring element

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

Rabindranath Tagore
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.

Rabindranath Tagore