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About this quote

What does it mean?
Love contains both personal assertion and impersonal denial. Without ego love has no self, but with only ego love is impossible.
In plain terms
Love needs both your presence and your ability to step back.
What can you take from it?
Balance your sense of self with openness to others in love.

Where it applies

  • relationship conflict
  • self discovery
  • dating

Putting it to work

  • reflect on boundaries
  • practice humility
  • communicate needs

Questions to consider

  • Where do you assert yourself in love?
  • Where do you let go?

Another view

Balancing ego and selflessness is difficult and varies by culture or person.

More from Rabindranath Tagore

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  2. In our desire for eternal life we pray for an eternity of our habit and comfort, forgetting that immortality is in repeatedly transcending the definite forms o…

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  3. In Art, man reveals himself and not his objects.

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