Rabindranath Tagore

“ REST belongs to the work as the eyelids to the eyes.
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MAN is a born child, his power is the power of growth.
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GOD expects answers for the flowers he sends us, not for the sun and the earth.
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THE light that plays, like a naked child, among the green leaves happily knows not that man can lie.
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O BEAUTY, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror.
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MY heart beats her waves at the shore of the world and writes upon it her signature in tears with the words, "I love thee." ”

“ And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.
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O TROUPE of little vagrants of the world, leave your footprints in my words.
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THE world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover.
It becomes small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal.
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IT is the tears of the earth that keep her smiles in bloom.
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THE mighty desert is burning for the love of a blade of grass who shakes her head and laughs and flies away.
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IF you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars. ”

“ GOD comes to me in the dusk of my evening with the flowers from my past kept fresh in his basket.
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WHEN all the strings of my life will be tuned, my Master, then at every touch of thine will come out the music of love.
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LET me live truly, my Lord, so that death to me become true.
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MAN'S history is waiting in patience for the triumph of the insulted man.
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I FEEL thy gaze upon my heart this moment like the sunny silence of the morning upon the lonely field whose harvest is over. ”

“ GOD loves man's lamp lights better than his own great stars.
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THIS world is the world of wild storms kept tame with the music of beauty.
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"MY heart is like the golden casket of thy kiss," said the sunset cloud to the sun.
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BY touching you may kill, by keeping away you may possess.
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THE cricket's chirp and the patter of rain come to me through the dark, like the rustle of dreams from my past youth.
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"I HAVE lost my dewdrop," cries the flower to the morning sky that has lost all its stars. ”

“ CHEERLESS is the day, the light under frowning clouds is like a punished child with traces of tears on its pale cheeks, and the cry of the wind is like the cry of a wounded world. But I know I am travelling to meet my Friend.
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TO-NIGHT there is a stir among the palm leaves, a swell in the sea, Full Moon, like the heart throb of the world. From what unknown sky hast thou carried in thy silence the aching secret of love? ”

“ I LIVE in this little world of mine and am afraid to make it the least less. Lift me into thy world and let me have the freedom gladly to lose my all.
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THE false can never grow into truth by growing in power.
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MY heart, with its lapping waves of song, longs to caress this green world of the sunny day.
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WAYSIDE grass, love the star, then your dreams will come out in flowers.
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LET your music, like a sword, pierce the noise of the market to its heart. ”

“ I FEEL, thy beauty, dark night, like that of the loved woman when she has put out the lamp.
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I CARRY in my world that flourishes the worlds that have failed.
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DEAR friend, I feel the silence of your great thoughts of may a deepening eventide on this beach when I listen to these waves.
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THE bird thinks it is an act of kindness to give the fish a lift in the air.
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"IN the moon thou sendest thy love letters to me," said the night to the sun.
"I leave my answers in tears upon the grass."
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THE Great is a born child; when he dies he gives his great childhood to the world. ”

“ LIFE finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worth by the claims of love. ”

“ WE live in this world when we love it. ”

“ WE read the world wrong and say that it deceives us. ”

“ THE bird-song is the echo of the morning light back from the earth.
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"ARE you too proud to kiss me?" the morning light asks the buttercup.
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"HOW may I sing to thee and worship, O Sun?" asked the little flower.
"By the simple silence of thy purity," answered the sun.
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MAN is worse than an animal when he is an animal.
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DARK clouds become heaven's flowers when kissed by light.
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LET not the sword-blade mock its handle for being blunt.
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THE night's silence, like a deep lamp, is burning with the light of its milky way. ”

“ DEATH'S stamp gives value to the coin of life; making it possible to buy with life what is truly precious. ”

“ LET my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence. ”

“ It loses its wreath of foam when poured into that of others.
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THE Perfect decks itself in beauty for the love of the Imperfect.
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GOD says to man, "I heal you therefore I hurt, love you therefore punish." ”

“ THE roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful. ”

“ O BEAUTY, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror. ”

“ THE music of the far-away summer flutters around the Autumn seeking its former nest. ”

“ NIGHT'S darkness is a bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn. ”

“ DEATH belongs to life as birth does. The walk is in the raising of the foot as in the laying of it down. ”

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

“ BLESSED is he whose fame does not outshine his truth. ”

“ The tree seeks his solitude of the sky.
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MAN barricades against himself.
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YOUR voice, my friend, wanders in my heart, like the muffled sound of the sea among these listening pines.
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WHAT is this unseen flame of darkness whose sparks are the stars?
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LET life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
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HE who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.
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IN death the many becomes one; in life the one becomes many.
Religion will be one when God is dead. ”

“ THE world loved man when he smiled. The world became afraid of him when he laughed. ”

“ THIS is a dream in which things are all loose and they oppress. I shall find them gathered in thee when I awake and shall be free.
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"WHO is there to take up my duties?" asked the setting sun.
"I shall do what I can, my Master," said the earthen lamp.
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BY plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
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SILENCE will carry your voice like the nest that holds the sleeping birds.
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THE Great walks with the Small without fear.
The Middling keeps aloof.
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THE night opens the flowers in secret and allows the day to get thanks. ”

“ THAT I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life. ”

“ THE little flower lies in the dust.
It sought the path of the butterfly. ”

“ HE who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good. ”

“ BY touching you may kill, by keeping away you may possess. ”

“ LET this be my last word, that I trust in thy love. ”

“ ONCE we dreamt that we were strangers.
We wake up to find that we were dear to each other. ”

“ MEN are cruel, but Man is kind. ”

“ THE fountain of death makes the still water of life play. ”

“ "YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side," said the dewdrop to the lake. ”

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

“ A MIND all logic is like a knife all blade.
It makes the hand bleed that uses it. ”

“ I CANNOT tell why this heart languishes in silence.
It is for small needs it never asks, or knows or remembers. ”

“ WHEN I stand before thee at the day's end thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing. ”

“ THE bird thinks it is an act of kindness to give the fish a lift in the air. ”

“ LET him only see the thorns who has eyes to see the rose. ”

“ YOU smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long. ”

“ MAN is worse than an animal when he is an animal. ”

“ MAN goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence. ”

“ MY day is done, and I am like a boat drawn on the beach, listening to the dance-music of the tide in the evening. ”