Browse quotations by Rabindranath Tagore with named works, context notes, meanings and recurring themes.
Focused collections bring together quotations from this author around one recurring idea.
“hope for the patience to win my freedom.”
Freedom is paired with patient hope rather than anxious rescue, suggesting that endurance and inner steadiness are part of the desired liberation.
Source note: Fruit-Gathering, poem LXXIX; Project Gutenberg #6522. This excerpt completes a prayer against anxious craving to be saved and retains that spiritual context.
“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.”
The prayer asks not for the removal of danger but for courage within it, shifting the desired response from guaranteed safety toward steadiness under difficulty.
Source note: Fruit-Gathering, poem LXXIX, translated by Tagore from Bengali; Project Gutenberg #6522. The line is explicitly prayer language and should not be read as advice to ignore real safety precautions.
“I live in the hope of meeting with him”
The speaker continues to wait in hope despite an unfulfilled meeting, making expectation itself part of the devotional life rather than proof that fulfillment has already arrived.
Source note: Gitanjali, poem 13; Project Gutenberg #7164. The “him” is the poem’s spiritual addressee, so the record preserves devotional context instead of converting the sentence into a secular promise.
“And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions”
Tagore connects devotion with conduct: inward belief is meant to become visible through what a person actually does rather than remain only an interior feeling.
Source note: Gitanjali, poem 4, in Tagore’s own prose translations from Bengali; Project Gutenberg #7164. The omitted continuation explicitly attributes the strength to act to the divine addressee, so the line remains religious rather than generic productivity advice.
“MAN is a born child, his power is the power of growth.”
Tagore defines human power through continued capacity to develop, using childhood as an image of openness to change rather than completed maturity.
Source note: Stray Birds, aphorism 25, translated by Tagore from Bengali; Project Gutenberg #6524. The compact line is poetic-philosophical and is not presented as a modern developmental-psychology claim.
“O BEAUTY, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror.”
Beauty is located in relationship and love rather than self-admiring reflection, pushing worth away from flattering appearance alone and toward a less self-enclosed measure.
Source note: Stray Birds, aphorism 28; Project Gutenberg #6524. The personified address to Beauty is poetic language and should not be flattened into a literal rule about appearance or relationships.
“Thy breath comes to me whispering an impossible hope.”
Longing for what seems beyond reach still carries a form of hope, even while the speaker openly recognizes distance, limitation and uncertainty.
Source note: The Gardener, poem 5, translated by Tagore from Bengali; Project Gutenberg #6686. The poem repeatedly addresses the “Great Beyond” and “Far-to-seek,” so the hope is lyrical longing rather than a factual prediction.
“Trust love even if it brings sorrow. Do not close up your heart.”
The advice refuses to make sorrow a reason for emotional withdrawal, presenting openness to love as worthwhile even when attachment can also bring pain.
Source note: The Gardener, poem 27; Project Gutenberg #6686. This is dialogue within a lyric sequence, and the surrounding exchange explicitly pairs love with tears and enduring sorrow.