Swami Vivekananda

“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.”

“Every wave of passion restrained is a balance in your favor. It is therefore good policy not to return anger for anger, as with all true morality.”

“Dependence is misery. Independence is happiness.”

“Think day and night, I am of the essence of that Supreme Existence, Knowledge, Bliss-what fear and anxiety have I? This body, mind, and intellect are all transient, and That which is beyond these is myself.”

“Change can only be in the limited.”

“Not even the deepest sleep will give you such a rest as meditation can. The mind goes on jumping even in deepest sleep. Just those few moments in meditation your brain has almost stopped. ... You forget the body. ... You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation.”

“What we call powers, secrets of nature, and force, are all within. In the external world are only a series of changes.”

“Hold on to your own ideal. . . . Above all, never attempt to guide or rule others, or, as the Yankees say, "boss" others. Be the servant of all.”

“Something cannot be made out of nothing. Nor can something be made to go back to nothing.”

“By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger; and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and in society.”

“[Perfection] is only possible if the mind of man is changed, if he, of his own sweet will, changes his mind; and the great difficulty is, neither can he force his own mind.”

“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.”

“The hard discipline, with the exception of one great good point, is fraught with evil. The good point is that men can do one or two things well with very little effort, having practiced them every day through generations.”

“Blame neither man, nor God, nor anyone in the world. When you find yourselves suffering, blame yourselves, and try to do better.”

“Stand up, be bold, and take the blame on your own shoulders. Do not go about throwing mud at others; for all the faults you suffer from, you are the sole and only cause.”

“...oneness is the secret to everything.”

“I reached Ghazipur three days ago. Here I am putting up in the house of Babu Satish Chandra Mukherji, a friend of my early age. The place is very pleasant. Close by flows the Ganga, but bathing there is troublesome, for there is no regular path, and it is hard work wading through sands.”

“The whole universe is composed of name and form. Whatever we see is either a compound of name and form, or simply name with form which is a mental image.”

“The sculptor, the painter the musician the dancer, or any artist, if he can first obtain celebrate in Paris, acquires very easily the esteem and eulogy of other countries.”

“Not one atom can rest until it finds its freedom.”

“The animal man lives in the senses. If he does not get enough to eat, he is miserable; or if something happens to his body, he is miserable. In the senses both his misery and his happiness begin and end.”

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

“From attachment comes longing, and longing breeds anger. From anger comes delusion, and from delusion, confused memory. From confused memory comes the ruin of discrimination; and from the ruin of discrimination, a man perishes.”

“As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave.”

“The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.”

“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.”

“None will be able to resist truth and love and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish even unto death, and loving? Then fear not, not even death.”

“Pay particular attention to your health, but too much coddling of the body will, on the contrary, also spoil the health.”

“The more we grow in Love, Virtue and Holiness, the more we see Love, Virtue and Holiness outside.”

“Do you have the belief in you to move on, even when the whole world is against you, with swords in their hands?”

“Is there no room for art in the spoken language? What is the use of creating an unnatural language to the exclusion of the natural one?”

“None deserves liberty who is not ready to give liberty”

“Give up the idea that by ruling over others you can do any good to them. But you can do just as much as you can in the case of the plant: you can supply the growing seed with the materials for the making up of its body, bringing to it the earth, the water, the air, that it wants. It will take all that it wants by its own nature, it will assimilate and grow by its own nature.”

“Body is the name of a series of changes.”

“Man cannot be satisfied by wealth. Man cannot go beyond his nature, no more than you can jump out of your body.”

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

“He who conquers self conquers all.”

“First get rid of the delusion "I am the body," then only will we want real knowledge.”

“Purity, patience and perseverance overcome all obstacles. All great things must of necessity be slow.”

“True progress is slow but sure.”

“In this world we find that all happiness is followed by misery as its shadow. Life has its shadow, death. They must go together, because they are not contradictory, not two separate existences, but different manifestations of the same unit, life and death, sorrow and happiness, good and evil.”

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

“You have no more anger when you are all love, bliss, infinite existence. . . .”

“Sincerity of conviction and purity of motive will surely gain the day; and even a small minority, armed with these, is surely destined to prevail against all odds.”

“. . . Wait, my child, wait and work on. Patience, patience. . . . .”

“Our own selfishness makes us the most arrant cowards; our own selfishness is the great cause of fear and cowardice.”

“Thought ceases in meditation; even the mind's elements are quite quiet. Blood circulation stops. His breath stops, but he is not dead.”

“This body is a combination. It is only a fiction to say that I have one body, you another, and the sun another.”

“Let the end and the means be joined into one.”

“When I see an object there is no will; when its sensations are carried to the brain, there comes the reaction, which says "Do this", or "Do not do this", and this state of the ego-substance is what is called will”