Rabindranath Tagore — You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.Rabindranath Tagore
Attributed to Rabindranath Tagore
Contemplation has a limit, and it is the shoreline. At some point the only remaining information about the sea comes from being in it.
You can study English grammar for years and still stand on the sand. The crossing begins the first time you speak without being sure it will go well.
Words that widen the world
Only; nothing more than.
Synonyms: only, simply, just
Merely watching teaches little.
To look fixedly at something.
Synonyms: gaze, gape, watch
He stared at the water for years.
Common questions
It means goals are reached through action, not contemplation — you must actually begin to make progress.
A Bengali poet, writer, and composer who in 1913 became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Carry it with you
In your own words, what does this thought mean to you? Write three or four sentences in English about a moment when it felt true — saying it yourself is how it stays with you.
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