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Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.
Muhammad Iqbal
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The essence of a nation is inspired by creative visionaries, but its fate ultimately lies in the hands of its leaders.

This quote highlights the vital role that poets and creative thinkers play in the formation of a nation's identity and spirit, suggesting that the ideals and dreams they embody are crucial for its birth. However, it also emphasizes that politicians, who wield power and make practical decisions, have the responsibility and capability to sustain or destroy that vision, reflecting the complex interplay between inspiration and governance in shaping a nation's destiny.

Themes

NationPoetsPoliticiansIdentityLeadership

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of arts in society.

More from Muhammad Iqbal

The revealed and mystic literature of mankind bears ample testimony to the fact that religious experience has been too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be rejected as mere illusion. There seems to be no reason, then, to accept the normal level of human experience as fact and reject its other levels as mystical and emotional.
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I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky, And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.
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The soul is neither inside nor outside the body; neither proximate to nor separate from it.
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The wing of the Falcon brings to the king, the wing if the crow brings him to the cemetery.
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The truth is that the religious and the scientific processes, though involving different methods, are identical in their final aim. Both aim at reaching the most real.
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