It is hard, indeed, for men to be frank and straight and healthy, when their country is in the throes of dejection.
 Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World (1916). copy citation

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Author Rabindranath Tagore
Source The Home and the World
Topic country
Date 1916
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Surendranath Tagore
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7166/pg7166-images.html

Context

“But the glow of their genuine enthusiasm lighted them up, within as well as without. It became quite clear that when the pure breezes of a great joy and hope sweep through the land, all dirt and decay are cleansed away. It is hard, indeed, for men to be frank and straight and healthy, when their country is in the throes of dejection. Then were all eyes turned on my husband, from whose estates alone foreign sugar and salt and cloths had not been banished. Even the estate officers began to feel awkward and ashamed over it. And yet, some time ago, when my husband began to import country- made articles into our village, he had been secretly and openly twitted for his folly, by old and young alike.” source