To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear withunbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question without pause
To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lay...
Joe Darion (From The Man of La Mancha)
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening
thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Rabindranath Togore (Nobel Laureate)
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Stopping by Woods
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost
When the night was dark and utterly bleak
When our land lay sick in a fevered swoon
O loving mother! you held us close
And shielded us from times morose
Your lowered but ever watchful eyes
So pure, so faithfully sanctified
Granted us your special boon!
You, the remover of all agony
You, the guardian of our destiny!
Victory forever to thee!
The darkness of night is done
Now watch the glory of the rising sun
Touch the brow of eastern hills.
The song of birds, the auspicious breeze
Pour their potion to forever seize
Our hearts
As India wakes to meet the sanctity of your blessed feet.
You, the lord of mighty lords
Your glory we shall forever applaud
Remover of all agony
Guardian of our destiny!
Victory forever to thee!
From Marathi ...
सावलीची आस ना कोवळसे ऊन मी
सूर नाही संगती एक तरीही धून मी
ज्यात डोकावेंन मी ते मनाचे बिंब मी
जन्म हेलावल जे ते उसासे चिंब मी
नाव नाही ज्यास काही तो अनोखा रंग मी
जो पुरेल जन्म सारा तो सोबतीचा चंग मी
मीची मज व्यालो पोटा आपुलिया आलो
दोन्हीकडे पाहे तुका आहे तैसा आहे।
-Sant Tukaram Maharaj and Kshitij Patwardhan
From Wings of Fire (Introduction) by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kamal:
"Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by God to fulfill a particular role. Whatever I have achieved in life is through His help, and an expression of His will. He showered His grace on me through some outstanding teachers and colleagues, and when I pay tribute to these fine persons, I am merely praising His glory. All these rockets and missiles are His work through a small person called Kalam, in order to tell the several-million mass of India, to never feel small or helpless. We are all born with a divine fire in us, Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glory of its goodness.
May God bless you!"