God may grant us gifts, but the merit of being able to take and hold them must be our own. Alas for the boons that slip through unworthy hands!
 Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World (1916). copy citation

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

Context

“That was only natural, for had I not stepped into my good fortune by a mere chance, and without deserving it? But providence does not allow a run of luck to last for ever, unless its debt of honour be fully paid, day by day, through many a long day, and thus made secure. God may grant us gifts, but the merit of being able to take and hold them must be our own. Alas for the boons that slip through unworthy hands!
My husband's grandmother and mother were both renowned for their beauty. And my widowed sister-in-law was also of a beauty rarely to be seen. When, in turn, fate left them desolate, the grandmother vowed she would not insist on having beauty for her remaining grandson when he married.” source

Meaning and analysis

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