Swami Vivekananda famous quotes

According to the law of nature, wherever there is an awakening of a new and stronger life, there it tries to conquer and take the place of the old and the decaying. Nature favours the dying out of the unfit and the survival of the fittest. The final result of such conflict between the priestly and the other classes has been mentioned already.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Law #Class #Survival

All great undertakings are achieved through mighty obstacles. Keep up the deepest mental poise. Take not even the slightest notice of what puerile creatures may be saying against you.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#May #Obstacles #Poise

The difference between architecture and building is that the former expresses an idea, while the latter is merely a structure built on economical principles. The value of matter depends solely on its capacities of expressing ideas.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Art #Ideas #Differences

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Spiritual

Never turn back to see the result of what you have done. Give all to the Lord and go on, and think not of it.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Spiritual #Wisdom #Thinking

Faith, sympathy - fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Life is nothing, death is nothing, hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord - march on, the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls - forward - onward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls, and another takes up the work
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Faith #Fall #Goes On

It is the same India which has withstood the shocks of centuries, of hundreds of foreign invasions of hundreds of upheavals of manners and customs. It is the same land which stands firmer than any rock in the world, with its undying vigour, indestructible life. Its life is of the same nature as the soul, without beginning and without end, immortal; and we are the children of such a country.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Country #Children #Rocks

Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Inspiring #Brother

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Fate #Divinity #Blame

It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Beautiful

Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Real #Character #People

This is the secret of spiritual life: to think that I am the Atman and not the body, and that the whole of this universe with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but as a series of paintings...scenes on a canvas...of which I am the witness.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Spiritual #Thinking #Evil

You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #God

It is only work that is done as freewill offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Attachment #Offering #Humanity

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Eye

Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Truth

Anything that makes weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Poison #Weak #Rejects

The goal of mankind is knowledge ... Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Men #Goal #Soul

All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. You can do any thing and everything, without even the guidance of any one. Stand up and express the divinity within you.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Crazy #Believe #Half

The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Motivational #Being Strong #World

Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. ... Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Character #Long #Effort

It is the duty of all to support and side with Dharma. All must fight and support Dharma regardless of their personality, background, status.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Fighting #Support #Personality

Books cannot teach God, but they can destroy ignorance; their action is negative.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Book #Ignorance #Negative

Books never make religions, but religions make books. We must not forget that. No book ever created God, but God inspired all the great books. And no book ever created a soul.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Book #Soul #Inspired

The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Have Faith #Being True

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Love #Inspiring #Selfish

The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Inspiration #Successful

Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad; then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord, and then will come power, help and indomitable energy.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Children #Heart #Thinking

Hindu Dharma is the quintessence of our national life, hold fast to it if you want your country to survive, or else you would be wiped out in three generations.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Country #Three #Generations

Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you, but do not think of that now.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Thinking #Giving #Return

This, I have seen in life - those who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step. Those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace; and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Fall

Only those who want nothing are masters of Nature.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Want #Masters

Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Worship #Devotion #Form

Work on with the intrepidity of a lion but at the same time with the tenderness of a flower.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Time #Flower #Lions

We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Faith #Blessed #Believe

Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest. Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and your country, and you will move the world.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Country

Say it with pride we are Hindus
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Pride

Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.
-- Swami Vivekananda

The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Past #Causes

In the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give help, give service, give any little thing you can, but keep out barter. Make no conditions and none will be imposed on you. Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Giving #Looks #World

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Thinking

It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Struggle #Character #Humanity

If I, as an Oriental have to worship Jesus of Nazareth, there is only one way, that is, to worship him as God and nothing else.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Jesus #Nazareth #Way

Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of all our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment. Therefore, "arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Goal #Heaven #World

What is the world that is to be given up? It is here. I am carrying it all with me. My own body. It is all for this body that I put my hand voluntarily upon my fellow human beings, just to keep it nice and give it a little pleasure. It is all for the body that I injure others and make mistakes.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Mistake #Nice #Hands

No one should be judged by their defects. The great virtues a person has are his or her especially. But their errors are the common weakness of humanity and should never be counted in estimating a person’s character.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Character #Errors #Humanity

The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy, that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. Misery is caused by sin, and by no other cause. What business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry this disease out into the world?
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Religious #Men #Cheerful

I direct my attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and I call upon men to make themselves conscious of this divinity within. That is really the ideal --conscious or unconscious --of every religion.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Strong #Men #Attention

Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my own mind [is the ideal of education].
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Mind #Facts #Mastery

If you dare declare that you are free, free you are this moment. If you say you are bound, bound you will remain.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Moments #Dare

If you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can. He must grow.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Men #Levels #Helping

When once you consider an action, do not let anything dissuade you. Consult your heart, not others, and then follow its dictates.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Heart #Action

Meditate upon the Om that is in the heart.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Heart

Do not look back upon what has been done. Go Ahead.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Looks #Done

It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one's own good
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Doing Good

Never say, ‘No’, never say, ‘I cannot’, for you are infinite. Even time and space are as nothing compared with your nature. You can do anything and everything, you are almighty
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Space #Anything And Everything #Infinite

He who has conquered the internal nature controls the whole universe; it becomes his servant.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Servant #Internals #Universe

Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mother of great deeds.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Mother #Deeds #Have Faith

Art is - representing the beautiful. There must be Art in everything.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Beautiful #Art #Art Is

One atom in this universe cannot move without dragging the whole world along with it. There cannot be any progress without the whole world following in the wake, and it is becoming every day dearer that the solution of any problem can never be attained on racial, or national, or narrow grounds.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Moving #Progress #Atoms

We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Details #Enjoy

If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word "fearlessness."
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Ignorance #Bombs

Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self (atman), the God of the universe.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Rocks #Self

If superstition enters, the brain is gone.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Brain #Superstitions

The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength in your mind and words.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Mind #Divinity #Body

The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Essence #Soul #Divinity

Music alone can take you to the Highest!
-- Swami Vivekananda

Society does not go down because of the activities of criminals, But because of the inactivities of the good people.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#People #Doe #Good People

Neither money pays, nor name pays, nor fame, nor learning; it is CHARACTER that cleave through adamantine walls of difference.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Wall #Character #Differences

Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Heart #Divinity

When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiration #Practice #Ideas

God is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Next #Beloved #God Life

If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Faith #Inspiration #Evil

The cheerful mind perseveres and the strong mind hews its way through a thousand difficulties.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Strong #Mind #Cheerful

Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Inspiration #Practice

Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book!
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiring #Book #Men

When I Asked God for Strength He Gave Me Difficult Situations to Face When I Asked God for Brain & Brawn He Gave Me Puzzles in Life to Solve When I Asked God for Happiness He Showed Me Some Unhappy People When I Asked God for Wealth He Showed Me How to Work Hard When I Asked God for Favors He Showed Me Opportunities to Work Hard When I Asked God for Peace He Showed Me How to Help Others God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted He Gave Me Everything I Needed.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Hard Work #Helping Others #Opportunity

The earth is enjoyed by heroes”—this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Hero

All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspiration #Practice #Meditation

All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody’s property; no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Motivational #Inspiring

Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Religious #Reading #Book

Nothing else is necessary but these - love, sincerity, and patience.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Patience #Perseverance #Sincerity

Wait with patience and love and strength. If helpers are not ready now, they will come in time. Why should we be in a hurry? The real working force of all great work is in its almost unperceived beginnings.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Patience #Perseverance #Real

I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Motivational #Believe #Universe

Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Motivational #People #Lazy

As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid.?
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Motivational #Believe #Long

Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Hurt #Intelligent

First, believe in the world-that there is meaning behind everything.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Believe #World

This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always true. Get hold of yourself.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Inspirational #Lessons #Firsts

The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Progress #Treatment #Thermometers

This is no world. It is God Himself. In delusion we call it world.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#World #Delusion

All the powers in the universe are already ours.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Universe

Do not lower your goals to the level of your abilities. Instead, raise your abilities to the height of your goals.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Goal #Levels #Height

If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Heart #Joy #Suffering

The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukti - freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from death and misery.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Perfection #Soul #Use

It is impossible to think about the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is impossible for a bird to fly on only one wing.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Thinking #Wings #Bird

To make a great future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Lying #Organization #Secret

Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Strong #Mind #Body

He who struggles is better than he who never attempts
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Struggle

Let new India arise out of peasants' cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper.
-- Swami Vivekananda

#Cottages #India #Cobblers