Swami Vivekananda Quotes

“Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it.”

“According to this philosophy, each man consists of three parts - the body, the internal organ or the mind, and behind that, what is called the Atman, the Self.”

“In a day, when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path”

“Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual fife, fight! Fight as long as there is any life in you! Even though you know that 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.”

“Let the mind be cheerful but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction.”

“This earth is higher than all the heavens; this is the greatest school in the universe.”

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

“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 wave is the same thing as the water, the effect is the cause in another form”

“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.”

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

“Marriage or non-marriage, good or evil, learning or ignorance, any of these is justified, if it leads to the goal.”

“Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.”

“Every time you think of doing some charity, you think there is some beggar to take your charity. If you say, "O Lord, let the world be full of charitable people!" - you mean, let the world be full of beggars also. Let the world be full of good works - let the world be full of misery. This is out-and-out slavishness!”

“The infinite library of the Universe is in your mind.”

“If you can think that infinite power, infinite knowledge and indomitable energy lie within you, and if you can bring out that power, you also can become like me.”

“Never even attempt to disturb anyone's tendencies.”

“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”

“As soon as you know the voice and understand what it is, the whole scene changes. The same world which was the ghastly battlefield of maya is now changed into something good and beautiful.”

“Freedom can never be true of name and form; it is the clay out of which we (the pots) are made; then it is limited and not free, so that freedom can never be true of the related. One pot can never say "I am free" as a pot; only as it loses all ideas of form does it become free.”

“Have fire and spread all over. Work, work. Be the servant while leading, be unselfish, and never listen to one friend in private accusing another. Have infinite patience, and success is yours.”

“Say, "I can do everything ." "Even if poison of a snake is powerless if you can firmly deny it."”

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

“Some men, who begin by saying that the world is a hell, often end by saying that it is a heaven when they succeed in the practice of self-control.”

“Be a hero. Always say, 'I have no fear.' Tell this to everyone - 'Have no fear.'”