Top 500 Rabindranath Tagore Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “The civilisation of the West has in it the spirit of the machine which must move; and to that blind movement human lives are offered as fuel, keeping up the steam-power. It represents the active aspect of inertia which has the appearance of freedom, but not its truth, and therefore gives rise to slavery both within its boundaries and outside.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

352. “Though its colour be not deep and its smell be faint, use this flower in thy service and pluck it while there is time.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

353. “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

354. “Those who think to reach God by running away from the world, when and where do they expect to meet him? We are reaching him here in this very spot, now at this very moment.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

355. “For what are obstacles to the lower creatures are opportunities to the higher life of man.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

356. “The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day. I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument. The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart. The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by. I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice; only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

357. “Essentially man is not a slave either of himself or of the world; but he is a lover. His freedom and fulfilment is in love, which is another name for perfect comprehension.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

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

— Rabindranath Tagore

359. “Outwardly nature is busy and restless, inwardly she is all silence and peace. She has toil on one side and leisure on the other. You see her bondage only when you see her from without, but within her heart is a limitless beauty.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

360. “All the intimate associations of our life, all its experience of pleasure and pain, group themselves around this display of the divine love, and from the drama that we witness in him. The touch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the familiar, making it break out into ineffable music. The trees and the stars and the blue hills appear to us as symbols aching with a meaning which can never be uttered in words.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

361. “Man’s history is being shaped according to the difficulties it encounters.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

362. “Sin is the blurring of truth which clouds the purity of our consciousness. In sin we lust after pleasures, not because they are truly desirable, but because the red light of our passions makes them appear desirable; we long for things not because they are great in themselves, but because our greed exaggerates them and makes them appear great.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

363. “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

364. “Thy desire at once puts out the light from the lamp it touches with its breath. It is unholy – take not thy gifts through its unclean hands. Accept only what is offered by sacred love.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

365. “The deepest source of all calamities in history is misunderstanding. For where we do not understand, we can never be just. Being.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

366. “YOUR speech is simple, my Master, but not theirs who talk of you.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

367. “Mother, the tutor has come, and I have such a bad headache; couldn’t I have no lessons to-day?” I hope no child of immature age will be allowed to read this story, and I sincerely trust it will not be used in text-books or primers for junior classes. For what I did was dreadfully bad, and I received no punishment whatever. On the contrary, my wickedness was crowned with success.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

368. “If it is necessary to die in order to live like men, what harm in dying?”

— Rabindranath Tagore

369. “Why did the lamp go out? I shaded it with my cloak to save it from the wind, that is why the lamp went out. Why did the flower fade? I pressed it to my heart with anxious love, that is why the flower faded. Why did the stream dry up? I put a dam across it to have it for my use, that is why the stream dried up. Why did the harp-string break? I tried to force a note that was beyond its power, that is why the harp-string is broken.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

370. “Women lose their delicacy and refinement, when they are compelled night and day to haggle with their destiny over things pitifully small, and for this they are blamed by those whom their toil supports.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

371. “We never cared for such useless things as knowledge. We only cared for truth. And our unsophisticated little hearts knew well where the Crystal Palace of Truth lay and how to reach it. But to-day we are expected to write pages of facts, while the truth is simply this: “There was a king.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

372. “As in intellectual error, so in evil of any other form, its essence is impermanence, for it cannot accord with the whole. Every moment it is being corrected by the totality of things and keeps changing its aspect.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

373. “I really did think at one time that I was on the verge of becoming a poet, but Providence was kind enough to save me from that disaster.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

374. “At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate to be shut; but I find that yet there is time.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

375. “The hours trip rapidly away, hiding their dreams in their skirts.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

376. “When material is in profusion, the mind gets lazy and leaves everything to it, forgetting that for a successful feast of joy its internal equipment counts for more than the external. This is the chief lesson which his infant state has to teach to man. There his possessions are few and trivial, yet he needs no more for his happiness. The world of play is spoilt for the unfortunate youngster who is burdened with an unlimited quantity of playthings.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

377. “Our music draws the listener away, beyond the limits of everyday human joys and sorrows, and takes us to that lonely region of renunciation which lies to the root of the universe, while European music leads us to a variegated dance through the endless rise and fall of human grief and joy.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

378. “Only the weak dare not be just.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

379. “The man, whose acquaintance with the world does not lead him deeper than science leads him, will never understand what it is that the man with the spiritual vision finds in these natural phenomena. The water does not merely cleanse his limbs, but it purifies his heart; for it touches his soul. The earth does not merely hold his body, but it gladdens his mind; for its contact is more than a physical contact – it is a living presence.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

380. “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. And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

381. “Therefore the whole apparatus of piety, Hindu and Moslem alike – the temple and mosque, idol and holy water, scriptures and priests – were denounced by this inconveniently clear-sighted poet as mere substitutes for reality; dead things intervening between the soul and its love –.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

382. “Day by day thou art making me worthy of the simple, great gifts that thou gavest to me unasked – this sky and the light, this body and the life and the mind – saving me from perils of overmuch desire.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

383. “I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind. 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. And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

384. “King, they work, because they must. We work, because we are in love with life. That is why they condemn us as unpractical, and we condemn them as lifeless.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

385. “The one who plants a tree knowing he may never sit in its shade has learnt a little about life.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

386. “Raicharan was twelve years old when he came as a servant to his master’s house. He belonged to the same caste as his master and was given his master’s little son to nurse. As time went on the boy left Raicharan’s arms to go to school. From school he went on to college, and after college he entered the judicial service. Always, until he married, Raicharan was his sole attendant.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

387. “It is the tears of the earth that keep her smiles in bloom.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

388. “THE mighty desert is burning for the love of a blade of grass who shakes her head and laughs and flies away.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

389. “While Ratan was awaiting her call, the postmaster was awaiting a reply to his application.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

390. “I have only one prayer to offer to God, and it is that when I have been driven out of every society He will give me shelter at His own feet.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

391. “I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-by stops for a moment, nods to me and goes.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

392. “These were autumn mornings, the very time of year when kings of old went forth to conquest; and I, never stirring from my little corner in Calcutta, would let my mind wander over the whole world.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

393. “Amongst men of the Cabuliwallah’s class, however, it is well known that the words father-in-law’s house have a double meaning. It is a euphemism for jail, the place where we are well cared for, at no expense to ourselves. In this sense would the sturdy pedlar take my daughter’s question. ‘Oh,’ he would say, shaking his fist at an invisible policeman, ‘I will thrash my father-in-law!”

— Rabindranath Tagore

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

— Rabindranath Tagore

395. “I came out alone on my way to my tryst. But who is this that follows me in the silent dark? I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not. He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger; he adds his loud voice to every word that I utter.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

396. “In this world’s endless time and boundless space One may be born at last to match my sovereign grace.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

397. “Alas, for our foolish human nature! Its fond mistakes are persistent. The dictates of reason take a long time to assert their sway.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

398. “Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

399. “When a man does not realise his kinship with the world, he lives in a prison-house whose walls are alien to him.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

400. “Misery knocks at thy door, and her message is that thy lord is wakeful, and he calls thee to the love-tryst through the darkness of night. The sky is overcast with clouds and the rain is ceaseless. I know not what this is that stirs in me, – I know not its meaning. A moment’s flash of lightning drags down a deeper gloom on my sight, and my heart gropes for the path to where the music of the night calls me. Light, oh, where is the light?”

— Rabindranath Tagore