“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).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Does not the voice come to us, through the din of war, the shrieks of hatred, the wailings of despair, through the chur…" by Rabindranath Tagore?
Rabindranath Tagore photo
Rabindranath Tagore 178
Bengali polymath 1861–1941

Related quotes

Evelyn Underhill photo

“No nation is truly defeated which retains its spiritual self-possession. No nation is truly victorious which does not emerge soul unstained.”

Evelyn Underhill book Practical Mysticism

Preface, p. 14
Practical Mysticism (1914)

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

10 December 1824
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)

Karel Čapek photo

“We've become beings with souls… Something struggles within us. There are moments when something gets into us. Thoughts come to us which are not our own… People are our fathers! The voice that cries out that you want to live; the voice that complains; the voice that reasons; the voice that speaks of eternity — that is their voice!”

Karel Čapek R.U.R.

R.U.R. (1920)

Michael Foot photo

“Socialism with its ideal of the national control of consumption and production, its substitution of national barter for the processes of foreign trade, is by no means an international force. … It looks inwards rather than outwards and sets up a national economy, which every true protectionist should envy. Russia is a powerful national state and has indulged in nationalist policies. … Even a Socialist state cannot provide against war unless a world authority has been formed.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Article in Young Oxford and War (1934), quoted in Mervyn Jones, Michael Foot (Victor Gollancz, 1994), p. 31
1930s

Tertullian photo

“Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues. Every country has its own language, yet the subjects of which the untutored soul speaks are the same everywhere.”

Tertullian (155–220) Christian theologian

De Testimonio Animae (The Testimony of the Soul), 6.3
The Soul's Testimony https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0309.htm
Original: (la) Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.

Victor Hugo photo

“There was a nation among the nations, which was a sort of elder brother in this family of the oppressed, a prophet in the human tribe. This nation took the initiative of the whole human movement. It went on, saying, "Come!" and the rest followed. As a complement to the fraternity of men, in the Gospel, it taught the fraternity of nations. It spoke by the voice of its writers, of its poets, of its philosophers, of its orators, as by a single mouth, and its words flew to the extremities of the earth, to rest, like tongues of fire, upon the brow of all nations. It presided over the communion of intellects.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Napoleon the Little (1852), Conclusion, Part Second, I
Napoleon the Little (1852)

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

"Orphée Noir (Black Orpheus)"

Joseph Massad photo

“Such commitment extends to the maintenance of the exclusive Jewish symbolism that Israel deploys, ranging from its Jewish flag and national anthem (which only speaks of Jews) to its ceremonial national days and the practices of institutionalized discrimination against its Arab non-Jewish citizens in every facet of life.”

Joseph Massad (1963) Associate Professor of Arab Studies

Ibid.
"The Ends of Zionism: Racism and the Palestinian Struggle"

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Misery which, through long ages, had no spokesman, no helper, will now be its own helper and speak for itself.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Pt. I, Bk. VII, ch. 8.
1830s, The French Revolution. A History (1837)

Gertrude Stein photo

“There is no pulse so sure of the state of a nation as its characteristic art product which has nothing to do with its material life.”

Gertrude Stein book Paris France

Source: Paris France (1940), p. 12

Related topics