Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti — check out Tagore's best Quotes

Rabindranath Tagore, one of the unmatched heroes Mother India gave birth to and is always proud of lived between 1861 and 1941. A great thinker, philosopher, writer, poet, reformist and visionary, Tagore was the voice of the spiritual heritage of India. He authored several volumes of poetical works that stand out to proclaim his philosophy of life and man and lofty spiritualism.

The collection of his poems was published in London in 1912 under the title Gitanjali and got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was the first Indian to bag that honor. Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7 May 2022 and year on year, his birthday is celebrated on this date. Here is a collection of Rabindranath Tagore quotes that will illuminate you and inspire you.

The importance of action

To realize the dreams and aspirations of life, one must act and not just dwell in a utopian world hoping that things will happen by themselves. To move people out of their lazy conformities and get them to action, Tagore says,

“You cannot cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."

Service to humanity is the real joy

Tagore was not only a spiritualist, he was a humanist who believed that the ultimate purpose of life is to serve others. In the following quote, he highlights that the real joy lies in serving fellowmen by saying,

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

Tagore on the importance of Faith in life

If faith is lost, life becomes meaningless and unlivable even for a moment. Faith can bring back everything that is lost from life. Faith is the undercurrent that steersman to move forward successfully with his goals and aspirations. Tagore has always laid a great emphasis on Faith in life evident in the following quote.

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

Love of nature

Very few poets have sung on nature and life as beautifully as Tagore did. Tagore loved nature to the core and has sung about its myriad beauties. For him, nature teaches man in many ways inspiring him and illuminating him through its beauties, freshness, colors, amazing powers and processes. In the following quote, Tagore records what he learns from clouds.

“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 the end of life, but a door to new beginning

Rabindranath Tagore had deep moorings in the Indian thought. He always believed in the immortality of the soul. For him, life is just another phase during the soul’s eternal journey. Tagore in fact admired death and also sang in its praise. In the following quote, we learn his attitude toward death.

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

We must deserve what we desire

When we desire something in life, we must first make ourselves worthy of receiving it. When we increase our deservedness, things will come to us automatically. In the following quote, Tagore shows us the importance of increasing our deservedness.

“Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”

Tagore on generation gap

Times are changing and thoughts, approaches towards life, knowledge and outlooks of life are under constant flux through different generations. ‘Generation Gap’ is an important topic that we come across very often in life. Here is a highly thoughtful quote by Tagore that stresses the importance of understanding and acknowledging the generation gap.

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”