Swami Vivekananda Quotes

“No matter what that makes elastic - sharply, intellectually and sincerely, keep at bay it as noxious waste.”

“Men may have given millions of dollars and fed rats and cats, as some do in India. They say that men can take care of themselves, but the poor animals cannot. . .”

“How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.”

“Thinking of objects, attachment to them is formed in a man. From attachment longing, and from longing anger grows.”

“Art is - representing the beautiful. There must be Art in everything.”

“Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-makin g, assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.”

“These tremendous contradictions in our intellect, in our knowledge, yea, in all the facts of our life face us on all sides.”

“Out of purity and silence comes the word of power.”

“Say to your own minds, "I am He, I am He". Let it ring day and night in your minds like a song, and at the point of death declare : "I am He". That is truth; the infinite strength of the world is yours.”

“Never producing pain by thought, word, and deed, in any living being, is what is called Ahimsâ, non-injury.”

“The power of purity-it is a definite power.”

“The more opposition there is, the better. Does a river acquire velocity unless there is resistance? The newer and better a thing is, the more opposition I will meet with at the outset. It is opposition which foretells success. Where there is no opposition there is no success either.”

“Until we give up the world manufactured by the ego, never can we enter the kingdom of heaven. None ever did, none ever will.”

“Change is always subjective. To talk of evil and misery is nonsense, because they do not exist outside. If I am immune from all anger, I never feel angry. If am immune from all hatred, I never feel hatred.”

“Let us realise [that] we are the infinite power. Who put a limit to the power of mind? Let us realise we are all mind. Every drop has the whole of the ocean in it. That is the mind of man. The Indian mind reflects upon these [powers and potentialities] and wants to bring [them] all out. For himself he doesn't care what happens. It will take a great length of time [to reach perfection]. If it takes fifty thousand years, what of that!”

“Purity, patience and perseverance are the three essentials to success and above all love.”

“Man is the product of two forces, action and reaction, which make him think.”

“Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their taste.”

“When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds, and accomplish very little work.”

“These births and deaths are changes in nature which we are mistaking for changes in us.”

“In art, interest must be centred on the principal theme.”

“Change is always in regard to something which does not change, or which changes relatively less.”

“Even forgiveness, if weak and passive, is not true: fight is better. Forgive when you could bring legions of angels to the victory.”

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

“Take courage and work on. Patience and steady work - this is the only way. Go on; remember - patience and purity and courage and steady work. . . . So long as you are pure, and true to your principles, you will never fail.”