Swami Vivekananda Quotations

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

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

Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

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.

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

Arise! Awake! and stop not until the goal is reached.

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.

May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians give strength to you to carry out your noble idea.

As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.

In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.

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

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.

The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.

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.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

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

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

External nature is only internal nature writ large.

The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.

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

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.

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

That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.

If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

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.

When I asked god for peace, he showed me how to help others.

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

God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted , He Gave Me Everything I Needed.

GOD of truth, be Thou alone my guide

IT is good to love God for hope of reward, but it is better to love God for loves sake; and the prayer goes: O Lord, I do not want wealth nor children nor learning. If it be Thy will, I shall go from birth to birth. But grant me this, that I may love thee without the hope of reward - love unselfishly for loves sake.

Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man

A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.

The devil comes in many guises-anger in the form of justice-passion in the form of duty. When it first comes, the man knows and then he forgets. Just as your pleaders' conscience; at first they know it is all Badmashi (roguery), then it is duty to their clients; at last they get hardened.

When we really begin to live in the world, then we understand what is meant by brotherhood or mankind, and not before.

Those whose only aim is to barter the energies of life for gold, or name, or any other enjoyment; those to whom the tramp of embattled cohorts is the only manifestation of power; those to whom the enjoyment of the senses is the only bliss that life c

Purity,patience, and preserverance are the three essentials to success, and above all: love.

PRAYER is divine love alone. When this highest ideal of love is reached, philosophy is thrown away. Who will then care of it ? Freedom, salvation, nirvana- all are thrown away. Who cares to become free while in the enjoyment of divine love?

WHY should a man be miserable even here in the reign of a just and merciful God?

Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents in your hand and say, "here, my poor man", but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself.It is not the reciever that is blessed, but it is the giver.Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.

Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man

THE Lord is great! - He will not allow me to become a hypocrite. Now let what is in come out....

Do you think these sannyasi children of Sri Ramakrishna are born to simply to sit under trees lighting dhuni-fires? Whenever any of them will take up some work, people will be astonished to see their energy. Learn from them how to work.

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

Real freedom is not merely doing what you like, but also NOT doing what you like.

So long as even a single dog in my country is without food, my whole religion will be to feed it.

Never say NO, Never say, 'I cannot', for you are INFINITE. All the power is WITHIN you. You can do anything.

He who struggles is better than he who never attempts

Take Risks in Your Life If u Win, U Can Lead! If u Lose, U Can Guide!

You never hear of a mother cursing the child; she is forgiving, always forgiving.

The one theme of the Vedanta philosophy is the search after unity. The Hindu mind does not care for the particular; it is always after the general, nay, the universal. "what is it that by knowing which everything else is to be known." That is the one search.

When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.

Only those who want nothing are masters of Nature.

Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual life, fight as long as there is any life in you. Even though you know you are going to be killed, fight till you “are killed.” Don’t die of fright. Die fighting. Don’t go down till you are knocked down.

Get up, and set your shoulder to the wheel - How long is this life for? As you have come into this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference between you and the trees and stones? They too come into existence, decay and die.

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.

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.

Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization.

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

Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world.

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

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.

Preaching has always been the business of the Asiatics. The Western people are grand in organisation, social institutions, armies, governments, etc.; but when it comes to preaching religion, they cannot come near the Asiatic, whose business it has been all the time, and he knows it, and he does not use too much machinery.

The Hindus have a peculiar slovenliness in business matters, not being sufficiently methodical and strict in keeping accounts etc.

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

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.

The greatest sin is to think yourself weak

The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. 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. Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves.

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

beleive in yourself and the world will be at your feet

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

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.

Music alone can take you to the Highest!

Let people say whatever they like, stick to your own convictions, and rest assured, the world will be at your feet. They say, "Have faith in this fellow or that fellow", but I say, "Have faith in yourself first", that's the way. Have faith in yourself-all power is in you-be conscious and bring it out. Say, "I can do everything."

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

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

You must keep a strict eye on your health; let everything else be subordinated to that.

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.

In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.

Mark, therefore, the ordinary theory of practical religion, what it leads to. Charity is great, but the moment you say it is all, you run the risk of running into materialism. It is not religion. It is no better than atheism - a little less.

All the powers in the universe are already ours.

There is no help for you, outside yourself; You are the creator of the universe.

All powers are within you, you can do anything and everything.

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.

Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die.

Shivaji was the greatest Hindu king that India had produced within the last thousand years; one who was the very incarnation of lord Siva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the Hindus from the hands of the Mlecchas, and as one who succeeded in the reestablishment of Dharma which had been trampled underfoot by the depredations of the devastating hordes of the Moghals

He who knows even how to prepare a smoke properly, knows also how to meditate. And he who cannot cook well cannot be a perfect sannyasin. Unless cooking is performed with a pure mind and concentration, the food is not palatable.

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

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.

I am teaching you now about it, but how many of you will practice it?

If you can get absolutely still for just one moment, you have reached the goal.

Had I lived in Palestine, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have washed his feet, not with my tears, but with my heart's blood!

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

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.

Books are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.

Stand up and be strong! No fear. No superstition. Face the truth as it is!

It is an irrational claim to believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ and at the same time to hold that the greater part of his teachings have no application at the present time. If you say that the reason why the powers do not follow them that believe (as Christ said they would) is because you have not faith enough and are not pure enough-that will be all right. But to say that they have no application at the present time is to be ridiculous.

Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.

Where no bondage is, there is no cause and effect.