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I thought that my invincible power would hold the world captive, leaving me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hard strokes. When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip.

— Rabindranath Tagore Gitanjali (1912)

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Power

More quotes by Rabindranath Tagore

God, the Great Giver, can open the whole universe to our gaze in the narrow space of a single land.

In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play, and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.

Gitanjali (1912)

Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater than your idol.

Stray Birds (1916)

God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

Fireflies (1928)

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.

The Gardener (1915)

All Rabindranath Tagore quotes →

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There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

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When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Rabindranath Tagore (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.