Rabindranath Tagore

“He only has freedom who ideally loves freedom himself and is glad to extend it to others. He who cares to have slaves must chain himself to them. He who builds walls to create exclusion for others builds walls across his own freedom. He who distrusts freedom in others loses his moral right to it.”

“Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight.”

“when you came you cried and everybody smiled with joy; when you go smile and let the world cry for you.”

“The movement of life has its rest in its own music.”

“Merely to exist is not enough.”

“Not hammer-strokes, but dance of the water, sings the pebbles into perfection.”

“Power said to the world, "You are mine." The world kept it prisoner on her throne. Love said to the world, "I am thine." The world gave it the freedom of her house.”

“Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.”

“The significance which is in unity is an eternal wonder.”

“If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.”

“On each race is laid the duty to keep alight its own lamp of mind as its part in the illumination of the world. To break the lamp of any people into deprive it of its rightful place in the world festival.”

“Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation.”

“With begging and scrambling we find very little, but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more.”

“Work, especially good work, becomes easy only when desire has learnt to discipline itself.”

“These paper boats of mine are meant to dance on the ripples of hours, and not reach any destination.”

“He who wants to do good knocks at the gate: he who loves finds the door open.”

“A thorn can only be extracted if you know where it is.”

“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.”

“In death the many become one; in life the one become many.”

“This principle of opposites is at the very root of Creation, which is divided between the rule of the King and the Queen; Night and Day; the One and the Varied; the Eternal and the Evolving.”

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

“Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.”

“When he has the power to see things detached from self-interest and from the insistent claims of the lust of the senses, then alone can he have the true vision of the beauty that is everywhere.”

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

“Dark clouds become heaven's flowers when kissed by light.”

“Wrong is wrong only when you are at liberty to choose.”

“Perhaps the crescent moon smiles in doubt at being told that it is a fragment awaiting perfection.”

“Plunge into the deep without fear, with the gladness of April in your heart.”

“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.”

“If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative.”

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”

“When I think of ages past That have floated down the stream Of life and love and death, I feel how free it makes us To pass away.”

“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.”

“I leave no trace of wings in the air, but I am glad I have had my flight.”

“The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.”

“For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door.”

“Boasting is only a masked shame; it does not truly believe in itself.”

“Everything has sprung from immortal life and is vibrating with life, for life is immense!”

“Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it.”

“Poems On Love Love adorns itself; it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty. Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom. Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it. Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted.”

“Dreams can never be made captive.”

“The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail.”

“Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law.”

“When our universe is in harmony with man, the eternal, we know it as truth, we feel it as beauty.”

“The bird thinks it a favor to give the fish a lift in the air”

“Who are you, a hundred years from today, reading my poetry with curiosity?”

“And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well.”

“We are hidden in ourselves, like a truth hidden in isolated facts. When we know that this One in us is One in all, then our truth is revealed.”

“Those who in this world have the courage to try and solve in their own lives new problems of life, are the ones who raise society to greatness.”

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”