Rabindranath Tagore Quotes: 178 Timeless Quotes on Happiness, Faith, and Life's Beautiful Aspects

The Fourfold Way of India (1924); this has become paraphrased as "Truth comes as conqueror only to those who have lost the art of receiving it as friend."

“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.”

Rabindranath Tagore

"Nationalism in the West", 1917. Reprinted in Rabindranath Tagore and Mohit K. Ray, Essays (2007, p. 465). Also cited in Parmanand Parashar, Nationalism: Its Theory and Principles in India (1996, p. 212), and Himani Bannerji, Demography and Democracy: Essays on Nationalism, Gender and Ideology. (2011, p.179).

“What India has been, the whole world is now. The whole world is becoming one country through scientific facility. And the moment is arriving when you also must find a basis of unity which is not political. If India can offer to the world her solution, it will be a contribution to humanity. There is only one history — the history of Man. All national histories are merely chapters in the larger one.”

Rabindranath Tagore

"Nationalism in the West", 1917. Reprinted in Rabindranath Tagore and Mohit K. Ray, Essays (2007, p. 492).

“Knowledge is partial, because our intellect is an instrument, it is only a part of us, it can give us information about things which can be divided and analysed, and whose properties can be classified part by part. But Brahma is perfect, and knowledge which is partial can never be a knowledge of him.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)

“I saw, all of a sudden, an odd-looking bird making its way through the water to the opposite bank, followed by a great commotion. I found it was a domestic fowl which had managed to escape impending doom in the galley by jumping overboard and was now trying frantically to swim across. It had almost gained the bank when the clutches of its relentless pursuers closed on it, and it was brought back in triumph, gripped by the neck. I told the cook I would not have any meat for dinner. I really must give up animal food. We manage to swallow flesh only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing we do. There are many crimes which are the creation of man himself, the wrongfulness of which is put down to their divergence from habit, custom, or tradition. But cruelty is not of these. It is a fundamental sin, and admits of no argument or nice distinctions. If only we do not allow our heart to grow callous, its protest against cruelty is always clearly heard; and yet we go on perpetrating cruelties easily, merrily, all of us ⎯ in fact, any one who does not join in is dubbed a crank. … if, after our pity is aroused, we persist in throttling our feelings simply in order to join others in their preying upon life, we insult all that is good in us. I have decided to try a vegetarian diet.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“While God waits for his temple to be built of love, men bring stones.”

Rabindranath Tagore

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Fireflies (1928)

“To Indians the idea of the transmigration of the soul from animal to man, and man to animal, does not seem strange, and so from our scriptures pity for all sentient creatures has not been banished as a sentimental exaggeration. When I am in close touch with Nature in the country, the Indian in me asserts itself and I cannot remain coldly indifferent to the abounding joy of life throbbing within the soft down-covered breast of a single tiny bird.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing, But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play, and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.”

Rabindranath Tagore

96 Gitanjali http://www.spiritualbee.com/gitanjali-poems-of-tagore/ (1912)

“A very important factor which is making it almost impossible for Hindu-Muslim unity to become an accomplished fact is that the Muslims can not confine their patriotism to any one country. I had frankly asked (the Muslims) whether in the event of any Mohammedan power invading India, they (Muslims) would stand side by side with their Hindu neighbours to defend their common land. I was not satisfied with the reply I got from them… Even such a man as Mr. Mohammad Ali (one of the famous Ali brothers, the leaders of the Khilafat Movement-the compiler) has declared that under no circumstances is it permissible for any Mohammedan, whatever be his country, to stand against any Mohammedan.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, Interview of Rabindranath Tagore in `Times of India', 18-4-1924 in the column, `Through Indian Eyes on the Post Khilafat Hindu Muslim Riots http://hindusamhati.blogspot.com/2013/05/thoughts-of-rabindranath-tagore-on.html Also in A. Ghosh: "Making of the Muslim Psyche" in Devendra Swamp (ed.), Politics of Conversion, New Delhi, 1986, p. 148. And in S.R. Goel, Muslim Separatism – Causes and Consequences (1987).

“When we rejoice in our fulness, then we can part with our fruits with joy.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“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.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Original works of Rabindranath Vol. 24 page 375, Vishwa Bharti; 1982.

“Ah me, why did they build my house by the road to the market town?”

Rabindranath Tagore

4 The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“Please is frail like a dewdrop, while it laughs it dies. But sorrow is strong and abiding. Let sorrowful love wake in your eyes.”

Rabindranath Tagore

27 The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

“Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“In India, the measure of a singer's freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer's song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Interview with Einstein (1930)

“Reason tells us that creation never can be perfectly happy. So long as it is incomplete it must put up with imperfection and sorrow. It can only be perfect when it ceases to be creation, and is God. Do our prayers dare go so far?”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“It sometimes strikes me how immensely fortunate I am that each day should take its place in my life, either reddened with the rising and setting sun, or refreshingly cool with deep, dark clouds, or blooming like a white flower in the moonlight. What untold wealth!”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“Asks the Possible to the Impossible, "Where is your dwelling place?" "In the dreams of the impotent," comes the answer.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“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.”

Rabindranath Tagore

"Nationalism in the West", 1917. Reprinted in Rabindranath Tagore and Mohit K. Ray, Essays (2007, p. 475). Also cited in John Jesudason Cornelius, Rabindranath Tagore: India's Schoolmaster, (1928, p. 83).

“To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“The world is ever new to me; like an old friend loved through this and former lives, the acquaintance between us is both long and deep.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“God finds himself by creating.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“To the guests that must go, bid God's speed and brush away all traces of their steps.”

Rabindranath Tagore

45 The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

“Life's errors cry for the merciful beauty
that can modulate their isolation
into a harmony with the whole.”

Rabindranath Tagore

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Fireflies (1928)

“Every person is worthy of an infinite wealth of love — the beauty of his soul knows no limit.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“One of the many suppressed longings of creation which cry after fulfilment is for neglected joys within reach; while we are busy pursuing chimerical impossibilities we famish our lives…The emptiness left by easy joys, untasted, is ever growing in my life. And the day may come when I shall feel that, could I but have the past back, I would strive no more after the unattainable, but drain to the full these little, unsought, everyday joys which life offers.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal http://www.spiritualbee.com/tagore-book-of-letters/ (1921)

“When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.”

Rabindranath Tagore

37 Gitanjali http://www.spiritualbee.com/gitanjali-poems-of-tagore/ (1912)

“Night's darkness is a bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“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

74 The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

“Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)

“Does not the voice come to us, through the din of war, the shrieks of hatred, the wailings of despair, through the churning up of the unspeakable filth which has been accumulating for ages in the bottom of this nationalism, - the voice which cries to our soul that the tower of national selfishness, which goes by the name of patriotism, which has raised its banner of treason against heaven, must totter and fall with a crash, weighed down by its own bulk, its flag kissing the dust, its light extinguished? My brothers, when the red light of conflagration sends up its crackle of laughter to the stars, keep your faith upon those stars and not upon the fire of destruction.”

Rabindranath Tagore

"Nationalism in the West", 1917. Reprinted in Rabindranath Tagore and Mohit K. Ray, Essays (2007, p. 489). Also cited in Parmanand Parashar, Nationalism: Its Theory and Principles in India (1996, p. 213-14).

“That which transcends country, which is greater than country, can only reveal itself through one’s country. God has manifested his one eternal nature in just such a variety of forms… I can assure you that through the open sky of India you will be able to see the sun therefore there is no need to cross the ocean and sit at the window of a Christian church. … “I have nothing more to say,” answered Gora, “only this much I would add. You must understand that the Hindu religion takes in its lap, like a mother, people of different ideas and opinions, in other words, the Hindu religion looks upon man as man and does not count him as belonging to a particular party. It honours not only the wise but the foolish also and it shows respect not merely to one form of wisdom but to wisdom in all its aspects. Christians do not want to acknowledge diversity; they say that on one side is Christian religion and on the other eternal destruction, and between these two there is no middle path. And because we have studied under these Christians we have become ashamed of the variety that is there in Hinduism. We fail to see that through this diversity Hinduism is coming to realise the oneness of all. Unless we can free ourselves from this whirlpool of Christian teaching we shall not become fit for the glorious truths of Hindu religion.””

Rabindranath Tagore book Gora

Rabindranath Tagore, Gora, translated into English, Calcutta, 1961. Quoted from Goel, S. R. (2016). History of Hindu-Christian encounters, AD 304 to 1996. Chapter 13 ISBN 9788185990354 https://web.archive.org/web/20120501043412/http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hhce/

“When two-three different religions claim that only their own religions are true and all other religions are false, their religions are only ways to Heaven, conflicts can not be avoided. Thus, fundamentalism tries to abolish all other religions. This is called Bolshevism in religion. Only the path shown by the Hinduism can relieve the world form this meanness.”

Rabindranath Tagore

R. Tagore, `Aatmaparichapa' in his book `Parichaya' http://hindusamhati.blogspot.com/2013/05/thoughts-of-rabindranath-tagore-on.html

“God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.”

Rabindranath Tagore

25
Fireflies (1928)

“The child ever dwells in the mystery of ageless time,
unobscured by the dust of history.”

Rabindranath Tagore

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Fireflies (1928)

“Those who have everything but thee, my God, laugh at those who have nothing but thyself.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

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Stray Birds (1916)