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)
The world is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.
The greatest victory is that which is won without a battle.
The true artist is one who can see the beauty in everything.
The sun shines not on us, but in us.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
The mind, like a parachute, works best when open.
The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
The only way to do great work is to love what you do.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
The world has its own way of getting rid of its burdens. It makes them poets.
Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
The man who is a dreamer, and the man who is a doer, are not two men, but one. The dreamer is the doer in a larger sense.
The world is a grand hotel, and we are its guests. Some stay for a night, some for a week, some for a lifetime. But all must leave in the end.
The dust of the earth is the food of the stars.
Contemporaries of Rabindranath Tagore
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941).