Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti 2021: Remembering some of his greatest words

Rabindranath Tagore, India’s first Nobel laureate, will always be remembered in India as his poetic composition reverberates in our hearts and spirits in the form of our national anthem. A poet, philosopher, patriot, and a social thinker put in one, Tagore is one of the greatest revolutionaries India has produced. Tagore felt nature is a treasure of wisdom and hence education must happen in a natural setting. He championed the ideals of naturalism, humanism, internationalism and idealism. He breathed these concepts in the education provided at Shanti Niketan, the school he founded. Here is a list of the greatest quotes of Rabindranath Tagore.


Rabindranath Tagore greatest quotes

Tagore’s greatest quote #1

‘If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.’

When we are obsessed with the biggest goal of our life, we become blind to the galaxy of joys we find all along our journey. Such an attitude will only put us in a constant craving for success, while finding the life hopeless, unenjoyable and boring. Instead, we must find ways to enjoy life and love every bit of our life so that the whole of our lives becomes an enjoyable and fulfilling experience.

Tagore’s greatest quote #2

‘Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky’

Tagore’s thoughts are so deeply soaked in his philosophy of Man, Life and God. Tagore always advocated a life in perfect communion with nature. For his beauty is one of the biggest purposes of creation. While most of us look at clouds as the source of rains and storms, Tagore is able to appreciate its beauty. Like Wordsworth, Tagore too felt Nature is the best teacher and we can learn a lot from nature.

Tagore’s greatest quote #3

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

Bacon said in one of his essays: “Men fear death as children are afraid of darkness”. Fear of death is a common feeling every human shares on this earth. Even the sickest man does not want to give up his body. Somehow we identify ourselves with the body and we want to cling to our temporal existence for eternity. This quote of Tagore opens up a new dimension of our understanding about the life after death. Life after death can be enjoyable and a great experience. In fact, the comparison in his quote sees death as the gate opening up the doors to a glorious world.

Tagore’s greatest quote #4

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

The essence of wisdom is the awareness that knowledge is oceanic while what we learnt is only a drop of it. Great men of this world had always been humble and simple. In fact, humility is one of the characteristic hallmarks of learned people. In this quote, Tagore stresses on the importance of cultivating humility despite our accomplishments and successes.

Here is a list of many other greatest quotes of Rabindranath Tagore that can inspire us and broaden our understanding of life, man and God.

• If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.
• Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
• Music fills the infinite between two souls.
• What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.
• Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
• Do not say, 'It is morning,' and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.
• Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
• Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.
• The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.
• By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
• Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
• Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
• Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
• Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.
• Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
• I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
• Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.
• Facts are many, but the truth is one.
• Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.
• The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
• "Want of love is a degree of callousness; for love is the perfection of consciousness. We do not love because we do not comprehend, or rather we do not comprehend because we do not love. For love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is"
• You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
• Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky
• Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
• Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.
• "We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility."
• We live in the world when we love it.
• "Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation."
• "In our desire for eternal life we pray for an eternity of our habit and comfort, forgetting that immortality is in repeatedly transcending the definite forms of life in order to pursue the infinite truth of life."
• 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.
• "A mind all logic is like a knife all blade."
• Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it.
• "Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it."
• "A dewdrop is a perfect integrity that has no filial memory of its parentage."
• Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.
• ‘If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.’
• The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.
• ‘Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.’
• Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.
• ‘If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.’
• We gain freedom when we have paid the full price.
• ‘The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.’
• Age considers; youth ventures.