Top 500 Rabindranath Tagore Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “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. In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move. 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

402. “The increased facilities of communication and exchange of thought, the teachings of history, the unity of government, the rise of literature and the efforts of the Congress over a period of time have together begun to make us realize that we belong to one country and are one people; that whether in joy or in sorrow our destiny is one; and that we cannot prosper unless we discover the ties which make us one, and seek to strengthen them.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

403. “The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end. My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said, “Here art thou!” 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!” XIII.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

404. “Where one loves, one can follow without agreeing – one can surrender oneself with eyes open.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

405. “In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

406. “The little flower lies in the dust. It sought the path of the butterfly.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

407. “Yet it is at this very age when, in his heart of hearts, a young lad most craves for recognition and love; and he becomes the devoted slave of any one who shows him consideration. But none dare openly love him, for that would be regarded as undue indulgence and therefore bad for the boy. So, what with scolding and chiding, he becomes very much like a stray dog that has lost his master.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

408. “Why did the flower fade? I pressed it to my heart with anxious love, that is why the flower faded.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

409. “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. He.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

410. “The sands of desert may be very white and shiny, but I would much rather sow my seeds in black soil.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

411. “Vanity is not like a horse or an elephant requiring expensive fodder.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

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

— Rabindranath Tagore

413. “The pain of dwelling on the wrongs done to us by other people far exceeds the little bit of pleasure we derive from condemning others for their guilt.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

414. “Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!”

— Rabindranath Tagore

415. “The light of thy music illumines the world. The life breath of thy music runs from sky to sky. The holy stream of thy music breaks through all stony obstacles and rushes on. My.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

416. “Now nearly every small Bengali maiden had heard long ago about her father-in-law’s house; but we were a little new-fangled, and had kept these things from our child, so that Mini at this question must have been a trifle bewildered. But she would not show it, and with ready tact replied: ‘Are you going there?”

— Rabindranath Tagore

417. “Perfect gain is the best of all; but if that is impossible, then the next best gain is perfect losing.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

418. “Let your love see me even through the barrier of nearness.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

419. “The highest mission of education is to help us to realise the inner principle of the unity of all knowledge and all the activities of our social and spiritual being.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

420. “They who from birth have had no other speech than the trembling of their lips learn a language of the eyes, endless in expression, deep as the sea, clear as the heavens, wherein play dawn and sunset, light and shadow. The dumb have a lonely grandeur like Nature’s own. Wherefore.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

421. “Like the meeting of the seagulls and the waves we meet and come near. The seagulls fly off, the waves roll away and we depart.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

422. “They come from my imagination; for, as you know, truth is silent, and it is imagination only which waxes eloquent. Reality represses the flow of feeling like a rock; imagination cuts out a path for itself.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

423. “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

424. “I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

425. “Oh! what lies we women have to tell! When we are mothers, we tell lies to pacify our children; and when we are wives, we tell lies to pacify the fathers of our children. We are never free from this necessity.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

426. “Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

427. “Wrong is wrong only when you are at liberty to choose.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

428. “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

429. “Man is not to fight with other human races, other human individuals, but his work is to bring about reconciliation and Peace and to restore the bonds of friendship and love. We are not like fighting beasts. It is the life of self which is predominating in our life, the self which is creating the seclusion, giving rise to sufferings, to jealousy and hatred, to political and commercial competition. All these illusions will vanish, if we go down to the heart of.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

430. “MAIDEN, your simplicity, like the blueness of the lake, reveals your depth of truth.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

431. “In pleasure and in pain I stand not by the side of men, and thus stand by thee. I shrink to give up my life, and thus do not plunge into the great waters of life.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

432. “Turn a tree into a log and it will burn for you, but it will never bear living flowers and fruit.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

433. “Even though from childhood I had been taught that idolatry of the Nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will truly gain their India by fighting against the education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

434. “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

435. “This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new... Thy infinite gifts come to me only on those very small hand of mine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

436. “Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud and the powerful With your white robe of simpleness. Let your crown be of humility, your freedom the freedom of the soul. Build God’s throne daily upon the ample bareness of your poverty And know that what is huge is not great and pride is not everlasting.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

437. “Let those who are snake-charmers play with snakes; if harm comes to them, they are prepared for it. But these boys are so innocent, all the world is ready with its blessing to protect them. They play with a snake not knowing its nature, and when we see them smilingly, trustfully, putting their hands within reach of its fangs, then we understand how terribly dangerous the snake is.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

438. “It was chilly weather. Through the window the rays of the sun touched my feet, and the slight warmth was very welcome. It was almost eight o’clock, and the early pedestrians were returning home with their heads covered.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

439. “Death, you are no different to me than my lover with cloud-coloured skin, and your hair a mass of dark cloud, your hands like blood-red lotus, and your lips the colour of blood.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

440. “To be constantly changing one’s plans isn’t decision at all-it’s indecision.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

441. “At last, when no one else came, Mother Sleep soothed with her soft caresses the wounded heart of the motherless lad.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

442. “I do not for a moment suggest that Japan should be unmindful of acquiring modern weapons of self-protection. But this should never be allowed to go beyond her instinct of self-preservation. She must know that the real power is not in the weapons themselves, but in the man who wields those weapons.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

443. “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

444. “Clothed in facts truth feels oppressed. In the garb of poetry it moves easy and free.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

445. “He whom I enclose with my name is weeping in this dungeon. I am ever busy building this wall all around; and as this wall goes up into the sky day by day I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow. I take pride in this great wall, and I plaster it with dust and sand lest a least hole should be left in this name; and for all the care I take I lose sight of my true being. XXX.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

446. “Perhaps the scenes of travel conjure themselves up before me and pass and repass in my imagination all the more vividly, because I lead such a vegetable existence that a call to travel would fall upon me like a thunder-bolt.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

447. “When Death comes and whispers to me, “Your days are ended,” let me say to him, “I have lived in love and not in mere time.” He will ask, “Will your songs remain?” I shall say, “I know not, but this I know, that often when I sang I found my eternity.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

448. “When we were young, we understood all sweet things; and we could detect the sweets of a fairy story by an unerring science of our own. We never cared for such useless things as knowledge. We only cared for truth.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

449. “The cramped atmosphere of neglect oppressed Phatik so much that he felt that he could hardly breathe.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

450. “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