Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali Poet, Polymath)

Rabindranāth Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali poet, composer, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and painter who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He is the pre-eminent literary genius not only of his native Bengal but also of South Asia—possibly the whole of Asia.

Tagore displayed an extraordinary combination of talents. He experimented with various forms of art and sought an outlet first in music, then in drama, opera, and ballet and, toward the end of his life, in painting. Tagore was a talented theatrical artist, a playwright, and a producer of plays. He also inspired and directed the revival and full development of the art of dance in modern India. Tagore is extraordinary for his versatility, exceptional range, and complexity of a creative perspective.

Born in Calcutta, Tagore went to study law in England at age 17 but found the weather depressing. He returned to Calcutta after a year and concurrently wrote, composed music, painted, and did political work. He gained worldwide attention with the English translation of the spiritual verse Gītāñjali (1910; Song Offering,) which featured an appreciatory foreword by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

Tagore’s first book was a volume of poetry, Kabi-Kahini (1878; The Tale of the Poet,) followed by novels, short stories, and dramatic works. In addition to Gītāñjali, his major works include Binodini (1902; Eng trans 1964, the first modern novel by an Indian writer,) the collection of poems about childhood The Crescent Moon (1913,) and his best-known play, Chitra (1914.) He also wrote Jivan Smriti (1911; My Reminiscences, 1917) and Chhelebela (1940; My Boyhood Days.)

As a philosopher, Tagore challenged the binarism of India’s spiritual values and the spirit of the West. He held that one’s native culture could be reconciled by acknowledging and absorbing the good in other cultures. Taking into consideration the great conflicts of his time, Tagore articulated his vision of the “universal man.” He wrote, “The unity of human civilization can be better maintained by linking up in fellowship and cooperation of the different civilizations of the world.” And, “Let the mind be universal. The individual should not be sacrificed.”

Tagore’s versatile genius wielded a profound influence on the psyche of the Bengali people. He introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. Only a few literary giants—Shakespeare, Dante, Pushkin, and Goethe—have had as comparable an impact on a people’s language, literature, and cultural identity as Tagore has. He also culturally and politically inspired India and Bangladesh, where he remains the subject of great pride and admiration.

Tagore has the rare distinction of writing the national anthems of three countries: India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. He was knighted in 1915 but resigned the honor in 1919 as a protest against British policy in Punjab.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Rabindranath Tagore

Age considers; youth ventures.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Aging, Age

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
Topics: Audiences, Belief

Oneness amongst men, the advancement of unity in diversity? This has been the core religion of India.
—Rabindranath Tagore

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.
—Rabindranath Tagore

All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit—the spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history.
—Rabindranath Tagore

With begging and scrambling we find very little, but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Being Ourselves

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
Topics: Adventure

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door—or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Adversity

The meaning of our self is not to be found in its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless realisation of yoga, of union; not on the side of the canvas where it is blank, but on the side where the picture is being painted.
—Rabindranath Tagore

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don’t let yourself indulge in vain wishes.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Adventure, Action

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
—Rabindranath Tagore

The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. It’s 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 out of them, molding them into money.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Money, Greed

Let me light my lamp, says the tiny star; and never debate whether it will dispel the darkness.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Light

The singer has everything within him. The notes come out from his very life. They are not materials gathered from outside.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Singing

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: General, Adversity, Weather, Attitude

God seeks comrades and claims love, the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Obedience

I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Carpe-diem

Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Friendship

While God waits for His temple to be built of love, men bring stones.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Love

Life’s errors cry for the merciful beauty that can modulate their isolation into a harmony with the whole.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Harmony

Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Time Management

God respects me when I work; but God loves me when I sing.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Singing, One liners

God waits to win back his own flowers as gifts from man’s hands.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Gift, Gifts

If you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Mistakes, Truth

In the mountain, stillness surges up to explore its own height; In the lake, movement stands still to contemplate its own depth.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Wilderness

The potentiality of perfection outweighs actual contradictions… Existence in itself is here to prove that it cannot be an evil.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Existence

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand; with a grip that kills it.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Tolerance, Prejudice

Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Smile

I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy, I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Joy, Service, Act, Dream, Vice, Life

By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Admiration, Appreciation, Flowers, Beauty

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