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

Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Change

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of humanity.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Children, Hope

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

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

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. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Life

In the dualism of death and life there is a harmony. We know that the life of a soul, which is finite in its expression and infinite in its principle, must go through the portals of death in its journey to realise the infinite. It is death which is monistic, it has no life in it. But life is dualistic; it has an appearance as well as truth; and death is that appearance, that maya, which is an inseparable companion to life.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Harmony

Love’s gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Gift

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

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.
—Rabindranath Tagore

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

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

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

We do not raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Hope

We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Humility

I do not love him because he is good, but because he is my little child.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Children

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Life

Asks the Possible of the Impossible, “Where is your dwelling-place?” “In the dreams of the Impotent,” comes the answer.
—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

Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God’s dust is greater than your idol.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: God

Do not say, “It is morning,” and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Morning

The fundamental desire of life is the desire to exist.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Desire

He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Busy

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: Act, Vice, Joy, Dream, Service, Life

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

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

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

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

All that is not given is lost.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Generosity

We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Illusion

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