Rabindranath Tagore Quotes
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If someone smells a flower and says he does not understand, the reply to him is: there is nothing to understand, it is only a scent. If he persists, saying: that I know, but what does it all mean? Then one has either to change the subject, or make it more abstruse by saying that the scent is the shape which the universal joy takes in the flower.
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Where roads are made I lose my way.In the wide water, in the blue sky there is no line of a track.The pathway is hidden by the birds' wings, by the star-fires, by the flowers of the wayfaring seasons.And I ask my heart if its blood carries the wisdom of the unseen way.
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Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away. And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.
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The infinite being has assumed unto himself the mystery of finitude. And in him who is love the finite and the infinite are made one.
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Men can only think. Women have a way of understanding without thinking. Woman was created out of God's own fancy. Man, He had to hammer into shape.
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The thing which seems so glorious when viewed from the heights of the country's cause looks so muddy when seen from the bottom. One begins by getting angry and then feels disgusted.
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The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment's hesitation to crush beauty and life.
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Those who draw their sustenance from science are blessed. It is for me to only derive an occasional pleasure. This is nothing worthy of conceit, but I am indeed touched by the joys. This book is an ode to such joys, a digest of my collections from various sources.
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In desperate hope I go and search for her in all the corners of my house. I find her not. My house is small and what once has gone from it can never be regained. But infinite is thy mansion, my lord, and seeking her I have come to thy door.
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I believe in a spiritual world - not as anything separate from this world - but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth, that we are living in God.
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Pessimism is a form of mental dipsomania; it disdains healthy nourishment, indulges in the strong drink of denunciation, and creates an artificial dejection which thirsts for a stronger draught.
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Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.
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Life's errors cry for the merciful beauty that can modulate their isolation into a harmony with the whole.
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[The poets' role is that of] capturing on their instruments the secret stir of life in the air and giving it voice in the music of prophecy
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Do not linger to gather flowers to keep them, but walk on, for flowers will keep themselves blooming all your way.
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That which oppresses me, is it my soul trying to come out in the open, or the soul of the world knocking at my heart for entrance?
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O master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed for thee to fill with music.
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Overstraining is the enemy of accomplishment. Calm strength that arises from a deep and inexhaustible source is what brings success.
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There are two religions in earth, which have distinct enmity against all other religions. These two are Christianity and Islam. They are not just satisfied with observing their own religions, but are determined to destroy all other religions. That’s why the only way to make peace with them is to embrace their religions.'
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By unrighteousness man prospers, gains what appears desirable, conquer enemies, but perishes a the root.
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And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.
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The touch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the familiar, making it break out into ineffable music... The trees, the stars, and the blue hills ache with a meaning which can never be uttered in words.
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Yet what each one does is by no means of little moment. The grass has to put forth all its energy to draw sustenance from the uttermost tips of its rootlets simply to grow where it is as grass; it does not vainly strive to become a banyan tree; and so the earth gains a lovely carpet of green.
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The potentiality of perfection outweighs actual contradictions... Existence in itself is here to prove that it cannot be an evil.