Rabindranath Tagore

“By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”

“I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.”

“Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.”

“Light, my light, the world-filling light, the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light!”

“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.”

“Pluck this little flower and take it, delay not! I fear lest it droop and drop into the dust.”

“Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.”

“When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.”

“Have you not heard his silent steps? He comes, comes, ever comes.”

“On the seashore of endless worlds, children play.”

“The day was when I did not keep myself in readiness for thee; and entering my heart unbidden even as one of the common crowd, unknown to me, my king, thou didst press the signet of eternity upon many a fleeting moment of my life.”

“If thou speakest not I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it.”

“Death, thy servant, is at my door. He has crossed the unknown sea and brought thy call to my home.”

“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.”

“I came out alone on my way to my tryst. But who is this that follows me in the silent dark?”

“Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.”

“The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.”

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

“Let my country awake.”