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Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

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Famous Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

“মম চিত্তে নিতি নৃত্যে কে যে নাচে তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ। তারি সঙ্গে কী মৃদঙ্গে সদা বাজে তাতা থৈথৈ তাতা থৈথৈ তাতা থৈথৈ॥ হাসিকান্না হীরাপান্না দোলে ভালে, কাঁপে ছন্দে ভালোমন্দ তালে তালে, নাচে জন্ম নাচে মৃত্যু পাছে পাছে, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ। কী আনন্দ, কী আনন্দ, কী আনন্দ দিবারাত্রি নাচে মুক্তি নাচে বন্ধ-- সে তরঙ্গে ছুটি রঙ্গে পাছে পাছে তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ॥”

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Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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“O Woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their own hearts ... You are one-half woman and one-half dream.”

MenHeartDreamWomenHalfOne HalfHandiwork
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India
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“Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God, first fill your own house with the fragrance of love. Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart. Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer, first learn to bow in humility before your fellow men. Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down to lift someone who is down trodden. Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins, first forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.”

MenFirstsHeartLightAsksHousePrayerSinDarknessFeetHumilityFlowerPrayingFellowsForgivingLiftsKneesTemplesRemoveCandleBowsFragranceFellow ManAltarsAsking For ForgivenessGod First
Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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“The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in each new revelation.”

HeartIndividualMysteryGainsRevelationsLogicalInterpretationExhaustedCommentaryIndividual LifeGreat Hearts
Book:SĀDHANĀ - The Realisation of life
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“Say of him what you please, but I know my child's failings. I do not love him because he is good, but because he is my little child. How should you know how dear he can be when you try to weigh his merits against his faults? When I must punish him he becomes all the more a part of my being. When I cause his tears to come my heart weeps with him. I alone have a right to blame and punish, for he only may chastise who loves.”

KnowsShouldTryingHeartMayChildrenLittlesCausesKnow HowFailingTearsMy HeartPleaseBlameFaultsDearMy ChildrenMerit
Book:Delphi Collected Works of Rabindranath Tagore (Illustrated)
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“When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest. When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king. When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder.”

MindHeartHardLightDesireSongLostSidesSilenceLordBreakGraceDoorsKingsHolyMercyRaisesCornersDustDelusionShut UpShowersThunderCeremony
Book:கீதாஞ்சலி: Kītāñcali
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“Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed. I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room. The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.”

WantFeelsTryingHeartArtCertainHateAsksFearWealthPrayerRoomsSecretBreakMy HeartI HateShameHeavyDebtDustGrantedTheeAshamedHugAcheMy Best FriendPricelessObstinateShroudsHeart AcheTinselQuakeMy Heart Aches
Book:Gitanjali - Song Offerings
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“By all means they try to hold me secure who love me in this world. But it is otherwise with thy love which is greater than theirs, and thout keepst me free. Lest I forgot them they never venture to leave me alone. But day passes by after day and thou art not seen. If I call not thee in my prayers, if I keep not thee in my heart, thy love for me still waits for my love.”

IfsWorldTryingHeartMeanArtStillsWaitingPrayerGreaterThis WorldMy HeartSecureTheeVentureLeaving MeMe AloneHold MeLeave Me Alone
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India
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“Only Thee That I want thee, only thee---let my heart repeat without end. All desires that distract me, day and night, are false and empty to the core. As the night keeps hidden in its gloom the petition for light, even thus in the depth of my unconsciousness rings the cry ---`I want thee, only thee'. As the storm still seeks its end in peace when it strikes against peace with all its might, even thus my rebellion strikes against thy love and still its cry is ---`I want thee, only thee'.”

WantHeartStillsEndsLightMightDesireNightCryMy HeartEmptyDepthStormStrikesCoreRingsTheeRepeatsRebellionDay And NightGloomPetitionsUnconsciousness
Book:Gitanjali
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“If thou speakest not I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it. I will keep still and wait like the night with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience. The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden streams breaking through the sky. Then thy words will take wing in songs from every one of my birds' nests, and thy melodies will break forth in flowers in all my forest groves.”

IfsHeartStillsNightSongWaitingVoiceSilenceBreakMorningDarknessSkyFlowerMy HeartLowsBirdWingsEndureForestsGoldenStreamsMelodyBentNestsGrove
Book:Gitanjali - Song Offerings
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“Where is heaven? you ask me, my child,-the sages tell us it is beyond the limits of birth and death, unswayed by the rhythm of day and night; it is not of the earth. But your poet knows that its eternal hunger is for time and space, and it strives evermore to be born in the fruitful dust. Heaven is fulfilled in your sweet body, my child, in your palpitating heart. The sea is beating its drums in joy, the flowers are a-tiptoe to kiss you. For heaven is born in you, in the arms of the mother- dust.”

KnowsHeartChildrenBodyEarthJoyMotherNightAsksHeavenBornSpaceSeaPoetSweetFlowerArmsBirthLimitsKissingEternalStriveHungerRhythmDustAsk MeMy ChildrenFulfilledStrifeSageTime And SpaceDay And NightBirth And DeathEvermoreTiptoes
Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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“Give Me Strength This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.”

GivingMindHeartMightJoyPrayerPoorLordBearsMy HeartSorrowRootsGive MeRaisesStrikesSurrenderTheeKneesTriflesJoys And SorrowsInsolentGive Me Strength
Book:Gitanjali - Song Offerings
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“The song I came to sing remains unsung to this day. I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument. The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart….. I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice; only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house….. But the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house; I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.”

HeartFacesSongAsksHouseWishVoiceHeardMy HeartInstrumentsRemainsMeetingsGentleThis DayAgonyLitLampsFootsteps
Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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“I thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power, that the path before me was closed, that provisions were exhausted, and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity, but I find that thy will knows no end in me, and 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.”

KnowsHeartEndsCountryLastsDiesLostWonderBreakPathLimitsSilentTrackTongueMelodyShelterExhaustedProvisionVoyagesObscurity
Book:கீதாஞ்சலி: Kītāñcali
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“Somewhere in the arrangement of this world there seems to be a great concern about giving us delight, which shows that, in the universe, over and above the meaning of matter and forces, there is a message conveyed through the magic touch of personality. ... Is it merely because the rose is round and pink that it gives me more satisfaction than the gold which could buy me the necessities of life, or any number of slaves. ... Somehow we feel that through a rose the language of love reached our hearts.”

WorldLifeGivingFeelsHeartMatterShowsSeemsScienceUniverseLanguageForceNumbersMagicThis WorldPersonalityMessagesConcernGoldGive MeRoseSlaveRoundsSatisfactionDelightArrangementsLanguage Of Love
Book:The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore: A miscellany
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“We manage to swallow flesh only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing that 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, anyone who does not join in is dubbed a crank.”

IfsThinkingHeartDoeFactsGrowsSinNiceHeardGoes OnArgumentFundamentalsFleshKarmaCrueltyManageDistinctionProtestVegetarianVeganVegetarianismCrankCallousVegetarian Diet
Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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“O poor, unthinking human heart! Error will not go away, logic and reason are slow to penetrate.We cling with both arms to false hope, refusing to believe in the weightiest proofs against it, embracing it with all our strength. In the end it escapes, ripping our veins and draining our heart's blood; until, regaining consciousness, we rush to fall into snares of delusion all over again”

BelieveHumansHeartEndsReasonFallPoorConsciousnessBloodArmsLogicErrorsProofDelusionGoing AwayHuman HeartVeinsPenetrateSnaresDrainingFalse Hope
Book:Selected Short Stories
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“Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds. Open your doors and look abroad. From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before. In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across a hundred years.”

FeelsYearsLooksHeartMayJoyReadingVoiceMemoriesWealthMorningDoorsFlowerReaderSpringHundredGardenGoldCloudsGladStreaksBlossoming
Book:Delphi Collected Works of Rabindranath Tagore (Illustrated)
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“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom. Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.”

LifeLooksHeartMayFeelingsHandsPainWinningMy OwnDangerFailurePrayingMercyLet MeSavedConquerFearlessGrantsCowardAlliesAnxiousCraveBattlefieldsI May Not Be
Book:Delphi Collected Works of Rabindranath Tagore (Illustrated)
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“Where roads are made I lose my way.In the wide water, in the blue sky there is no line of a track.The pathway is hidden by the birds' wings, by the star-fires, by the flowers of the wayfaring seasons.And I ask my heart if its blood carries the wisdom of the unseen way.”

IfsWayHeartMadeAsksStarsWaterLosesLinesFireBloodSkyFlowerMy HeartBirdSeasonsBlueWingsTrackWideMy WayCarrieUnseenPathwaysBlue SkyBirds Wings
Book:Delphi Collected Works of Rabindranath Tagore (Illustrated)
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“The realization of our soul has its moral and its spiritual side. The moral side represents training of unselfishness, control of desire; the spiritual side represents sympathy and love. They should be taken together and never separated. The cultivation of the merely moral side of our nature leads us to the dark region of narrowness and hardness of heart, to the intolerant arrogance of goodness; and the cultivation of the merely spiritual side of our nature leads us to a still darker region of revelry in intemperance of imagination.”

ShouldHeartStillsSoulTogetherSpiritualDesireSpiritualitySidesImaginationDarkMoralTakenGoodnessTrainingAnd LoveRealizationArroganceRegionsCultivationUnselfishnessHardnessIntemperanceRevelrySympathy And LoveHardness Of Heart
Book:Essays
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