Rabindranath Tagore
First non-European Nobel Prize in Literature
Most quoted
"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; 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."
— from Gitanjali, 1910
"The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it long. I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of dawn, and shall speed on my voyage through the wilderness of worlds, leaving my track on many a star and planet."
— from Gitanjali, 1910
"Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live."
— from Nationalism (lecture), 1917
All quotes by Rabindranath Tagore (270)
I have spent my days in the open air, and my heart is like a bird that has flown from its cage.
Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.
The true wealth of a nation is not in its gold and silver, but in its learning, wisdom, and in the uprightness of its sons.
The problem is not how to wipe out the differences but how to unite with the differences intact.
The world is a song, and I am its singer.
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
The tree is a living poem.
The highest truth is that which is simple.
My heart is a stray dog, it has found its home in your love.
The mind, like a river, flows on and on, but the heart, like a lake, holds its stillness.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high...
The world is a mirror, and we are its reflection.
To be truly great, one has to stand with the people, not above them.
My life has been a journey of discovery, and I am still discovering.
The morning light has a message for me, and I must listen.
Art is the response of the soul to the call of the real.
The greatest gift you can give someone is your time, your attention, your love, your concern.
The bird wishes to be a cloud. The cloud wishes to be a bird.
The world is a vast stage, and we are all actors.
The silence of the night is full of voices.
Contemporaries of Rabindranath Tagore
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941).