Quotes from Rabindranath Tagore

I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-by stops for a moment, nods to me and goes.

The winds of grace are always blowing, but it is you that must raise your sails.

Your lips are bitter-sweet with the taste of my wine of pain.

The shore whispers to the sea: "Write to me what your waves struggle to say." The sea writes in foam again and again and wipes off the lines in a boisterous despair.

Turn a tree into a log and it will burn for you, but it will never bear living flowers and fruit.

Man's history is being shaped according to the difficulties it encounters.

In life the one becomes many. In death the many become one.

those in this world who have the courage to try and solve in their own lives new problems of life are the ones who raise society to greatness! Those who merely live according to rule do not advance society, they only carry it along.

Man is a born child, his power is the power of growth.

happiness is like those stars. They don't cover all the darkness; there are gaps between. We make mistakes in life and we misunderstand, and yet there remain gaps through which truth shines.

Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet. Let it not be a death but completeness. Let love melt into memory and pain into songs. Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest. Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night. Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence. I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.

It is easy to drown yourself effortlessly into that which is truly profound and do no realise its true worth. And since the restless illusion which brings no pleasure even if you drain it to the dregs lead us by the nose and makes us dance a merry dance to its tune and we take it to be the lost desirable thing

I must launch out my boat. The languid hours pass by on the shore---Alas for me! The spring has done its flowering and taken leave. And now with the burden of faded futile flowers I wait and linger. The waves have become clamorous, and upon the bank in the shady lane the yellow leaves flutter and fall. What emptiness do you gaze upon! Do you not feel a thrill passing through the air with the notes of the far-away song floating from the other shore?

O woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their hearts. Poets are weaving for you a web with threads of golden imagery; painters are giving your form ever new immortality. The sea gives its pearls, the mines their gold, the summer gardens their flowers to deck you, to cover you, to make you more precious. The desire of men's hearts has shed its glory over your youth. You are one half woman and one half dream.

Many an hour I have spent in the strife of the good and the evil, but now it is the pleasure of my playmate of the empty days to draw my heart on to him;

Chain Of Pearls Mother, I shall weave a chain of pearls for thy neck with my tears of sorrow. The stars have wrought their anklets of light to deck thy feet, but mine will hang upon thy breast. Wealth and fame come from thee and it is for thee to give or to withhold them. But this my sorrow is absolutely mine own, and when I bring it to thee as my offering thou rewardest me with thy grace.

YOUR speech is simple, my Master, but not theirs who talk of you.

Life has become richer by the love that has been lost.

Hasta el océano de las lágrimas tiene otra orilla; si así no fuera, nadie habría llorado nunca

Vanity is not like a horse or an elephant requiring expensive fodder.

THE mighty desert is burning for the love of a blade of grass who shakes her head and laughs and flies away.

I have spent a fortune traveling to distant shores and looked at lofty mountains and boundless oceans, and yet I haven't found time to take a few steps from my house to look at a single dew drop on a single blade of grass.

The newer people, of this modern age, are more eager to amass than to realize.

For what are obstacles to the lower creatures are opportunities to the higher life of man.