Rabindranath Tagore
181 quotes
Biography
Rabindranath Tagore, was a Bengali poet, author, playwright, musician, composer, philosopher, social reformer, painter, and one of the foremost figures of the Bengal Renaissance. In 1913, Tagore became the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in any category, and also the first lyricist and non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
"We live in the world when we love it."
"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."
"In Art, man reveals himself and not his objects."
"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."
"Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted."
"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."
"The small wisdom is like water in a glass:clear, transparent, pure.The great wisdom is like the water in the sea:dark, mysterious, impenetrable."
"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time."
"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."
"You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long."
"The biggest changes in a women's nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition"
"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence."
"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."
"YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side,'said the dewdrop to the lake."
"when you came you cried and everybody smiled with joy; when you go smile and let the world cry for you."
"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."
"Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight."
"We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us."
"It was indeed a great day not only for the Sikhs but also for the whole of India when Guru Govinda, defying the age-long conventions of the Hindu society, made his followers one, by breaking down all barriers of caste and thereby made them free to inherit the true blessings of a self-respecting manhood. Sikhism has a brave message to the people and it has a noble record."
"When the other person understands that I am not trying to enslave him, or not forcing him to do things against his will, he will surely understand I am doing what every human should do unto another. He will understand that with “Bande Mataram” we are worshipping a motherland whose children are the great and the small. Then, we will not insult or demean anyone through our attitudes, words and thoughts whether Muslim or lower caste, Bihari or Oriya, English educated or not — we will not be filled with self-pride."
"The truth comes as conqueror only because we have lost the art of receiving it as guest."
"The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings."
"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."
"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."