On May 07, 2018 the 157th birth anniversary of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore is being celebrated. He was a poet, a writer, a painter, an educationalist and composer. Tagore came from a family which was at the forefront of the Bengali Renaissance and was therefore also actively involved in the fight to eliminate the British Raj. Tagore wrote extensively on various subjects, and his verses have been acclaimed worldwide. Post the publication of his collection of poetry - Gitanjali, in 1910, Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He was the first non-European to get the honour. It is time we look at some classic quotes by Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary.

Popularly known as the Bard of Bengal, the songs written by him are now fondly known as Rabindra Sangeet. He wrote over two thousand songs in his lifetime of eighty years. He is also revered for composing the national anthems of India and Bangladesh and inspiring the national anthem of Sri Lanka.

Tagore’s verses are timeless. Their relevance is still as fresh as they were when he first wrote them. Here are of some of the simplest yet most profound lines that he wrote:

"It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple."

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."

"We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us."

"Music fills the infinite between two souls."

"Every child comes with the message that god is not yer discouraged of man."

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."

"Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

Tagore, a leader of Brahmo Samaj in nineteenth-century is popularly known as Gurudev. This title was given by none other than Mahatma Gandhi as a tribute to Tagore after the Bengali poet conferred him with the title "Mahatma". Despite his literary work being from 19th century, they still ring true in the present day.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 07, 2018 12:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).