Swami Vivekananda Quotes & Sayings

The gift of knowledge is the highest gift in the world. — Swami Vivekananda

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

Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us. — Swami Vivekananda

All sectarian religions take for granted that all men are equal. This is not warranted by science. There is more difference between minds than between bodies. One fundamental doctrine of Hinduism is that all men are different, there being unity in variety. Even for a drunkard, there are some Mantras-even for a man going to a prostitute! — Swami Vivekananda

There is no motion in a straight line. A straight line infinitely projected becomes a circle. — Swami Vivekananda

1. Symbology - The employment of various external aids to preserve and develop the religious faculty of man. 2. History - The philosophy of each religion as illustrated in the lives of divine or human teachers acknowledged by each religion. This includes mythology; for what is mythology to one race, or period, is or was history to other races or periods. Even in cases of human teachers, much of their history is taken as mythology by successive generations. 3. Philosophy - The rationale of the whole scope of each religion. 4. Mysticism - The assertion of something superior to sense-knowledge and reason which particular persons, or all persons under certain circumstances, possess; runs through the other divisions also. All — Swami Vivekananda

You of the West are practical in business, practical in great inventions, but we of the East are practical in religion. You make commerce your business; we make religion our business. — Swami Vivekananda

Who can break the law? If I break this glass, it will fall down. If anyone succeeds in throwing one atom out of place, every other atom will go out of balance ... The law can never be broken. Each atom is kept in its place. Each is weighed and measured and fulfils its [purpose] and place. Through His command the winds blow, the sun shines. Through His rule the worlds are kept in place. Through His orders death is sporting upon the earth. Just think of two or three Gods having a wrestling match in this world! It cannot be. — Swami Vivekananda

Man cannot live upon words, however he may try. — Swami Vivekananda

We can have no conception of God higher than man, so our God is man, and man is God. — Swami Vivekananda

We have none of us seen a form which had not a beginning and will not have an end. — Swami Vivekananda

The Hindus have cultivated the power of analysis and abstraction. No nation has yet produced a grammar like that of Panini. — Swami Vivekananda

Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already.You and I, and all beings, are trying to manifest that infinity. — Swami Vivekananda

In real meditation you forget the body. You may be cut to pieces and not feel it at all. You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation. — Swami Vivekananda

The present Hindu society is organised only for spiritual men, and hopelessly crushes out everybody else. Why? Where shall they go who want to enjoy the world a little with its frivolities? Just as our religion takes in all, so should our society. This is to be worked out by first understanding the true principles of our religion and then applying them to society. This is the slow but sure work to be done. — Swami Vivekananda

In China, where no man gets a title until he is dead; and that is a better way, after all, than with us. When a man does something very good there, they give a title of nobility to his father, who is dead, or to his grandfather. — Swami Vivekananda

All power is His and within His command. — Swami Vivekananda

The day, man will find that he never really dies; that his Soul persists beyond death; he will have no more fear of death. — Swami Vivekananda

all misery comes from fear, from unsatisfied desire. — Swami Vivekananda

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. — Swami Vivekananda

The disciple must have great power of endurance. Bear all evil and misery without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy, or retaliation. That is true endurance, and that you must acquire. — Swami Vivekananda

The Yogi says, religion is practical if you know first why misery exists. All the misery in the world is in the senses. Is — Swami Vivekananda

It is better not to love, if loving only means hating others. That is no love. That is hell! If loving your own people means hating everybody else, it is the quintessence of selfishness and brutality, and the effect is that it will make you brutes. Therefore, better die working out your own natural religion than following another's natural religion, however great it may appear to you — Swami Vivekananda

There is no end to renunciation. — Swami Vivekananda

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

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. — Swami Vivekananda

What is meant by charity? Charity is not fundamental. It is really helping on the misery of the world, not eradicating it. One looks for name and fame and covers his efforts to obtain them with the enamel of charity and good works. He is working for himself under the pretext of working for others. Every so-called charity is an encouragement of the very evil it claims to operate against. — Swami Vivekananda

The person is only a phenomenon, the principle is behind it. Thus from both sides, simultaneously, we find the breaking down of personalities and the approach towards principles, the Personal God approaching the Impersonal, the personal man approaching the Impersonal Man. — Swami Vivekananda

Above all, India is the land of religion. — Swami Vivekananda

First the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practice Pranayama. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, through the left nostril fill in air, according to capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left one. Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practicing this three or five times at four hours of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and at midnight, in fifteen days or a month — Swami Vivekananda

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

This ego - the less there is of it, the nearer I am to that which I really am: the universal body. — Swami Vivekananda

The Impersonal God seen through the mists of sense is personal. — Swami Vivekananda

The body is subject to the law of growth and decay, what grows must of necessity decay. — Swami Vivekananda

I am what I am, and what I am is always due to him; whatever in me or in my words is good and true and eternal came to me from his mouth, his heart, his soul. Sri Ramakrishna is the spring of this phase of the earth's religious life, of its impulses and activities. If I can show the world one glimpse of my Master, I shall not have lived in vain. — Swami Vivekananda

Oneness is the secret to everything. — Swami Vivekananda

Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet. — Swami Vivekananda

What is material and what is not? When the world is the end and God is the means to attain that end, that is material. When God is the end and the world is only the means to attain that end, spirituality has begun. — Swami Vivekananda

Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe. — Swami Vivekananda

I have come to this conclusion that there is only one country in the world which understands religion - it is India. — Swami Vivekananda

All is bound by the law of causation — Swami Vivekananda

We want the education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet. — Swami Vivekananda

The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits; all the bad habits that have left their impressions are to be controlled by good habits. Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously; that is the only way to suppress base impressions. Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, which can be checked by new and better ones. Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character. — Swami Vivekananda

It is the Prana that is manifesting as motion. — Swami Vivekananda

Be strong , my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita. These are bold words; but I have to say them, for I love you. I know where the shoe pinches. — Swami Vivekananda

If you [can realise Brahman] by standing on your head, or on one foot, or by worshipping five thousand gods with three heads each - welcome to it! ... Do it any way you can! Nobody has any right to say anything. Therefore, Krishna says, if your method is better and higher, you have no business to say that another man's method is bad, however wicked you may think it. — Swami Vivekananda

The three essentials of Hinduism are belief in God, in the Vedas as revelation, in the doctrine of Karma and transmigration. — Swami Vivekananda

Service to man is service to god — Swami Vivekananda

One ounce of practice is worth a thousand pounds of theory. — Swami Vivekananda

Everything is easy when you are busy. But nothing is easy when you are lazy. — Swami Vivekananda

Women will work out their destinies - much better, too, than men can ever do for them. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny of women. — Swami Vivekananda

Charity opens the heart. — Swami Vivekananda

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. — Swami Vivekananda

Our Soul is a spark of the Divine. It is pure and perfect. Evil deeds merely obstruct our vision of the true nature of our Soul. Through good deeds we can become conscious of this perfection again. — Swami Vivekananda

Love and charity for the whole human race, that is the test of true religiousness. — Swami Vivekananda

As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave. — Swami Vivekananda

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

The powers of the mind should be concentrated and the mind turned back upon itself; as the darkest places reveal their secrets before the penetrating rays of the sun, so will the concentrated mind penetrate its own innermost secrets. — Swami Vivekananda

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

Take courage and work on. Patience and steady work- this is the only way. — Swami Vivekananda

Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, 'Thy will be done.' We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go. — Swami Vivekananda

Give me few men and women who are pure and selfless and I shall shake the world. — Swami Vivekananda

Nothing is gained except by sacrifice ... Do not degrade it to the level of the brutes ... Make yourselves decent men! ... Be chaste and pure! ... There is no other way. Did Christ find any other way? — Swami Vivekananda

Each nation has a main current in life; in India it is religion. Make it strong and the waters on either side must move along with it. — Swami Vivekananda

You and I and everything in the universe are that Absolute, not parts, but the whole. You are the whole of that Absolute, and so are all others, because the idea of part cannot come into it. — Swami Vivekananda

This is the only way to reach the goal, to tell ourselves, and to tell everybody else, that we are divine. And as we go on repeating this, strength comes. He who falters at first will get stronger and stronger, and the voice will increase in volume until the truth takes possession of our hearts, and courses through our veins, and permeates our bodies. — Swami Vivekananda

Thinking of objects, attachment to them is formed in a man. From attachment longing, and from longing anger grows. — Swami Vivekananda

Whatever had form or shape must be limited, and could not be eternal. — Swami Vivekananda

A changeable God would be no God. — Swami Vivekananda

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." — Swami Vivekananda

Say, "This misery that I am suffering is of my own doing, and that very thing proves that it will have to be undone by me alone." That which I created, I can demolish; that which is created by some one else I shall never be able to destroy. Therefore, stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future. "Let the dead past bury its dead." The infinite future is before you, and you must always remember that each word, thought, and deed, lays up a store for you and that as the bad thoughts and bad works are ready to spring upon you like tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of a hundred thousand angels to defend you always and for ever. (II. 225) — Swami Vivekananda

Law is death. The more of the law in a country, the worse for the country. — Swami Vivekananda

What good being object of charity? Give away, ne'er turn to ask in return, Should there be the wealth treasured in thy heart. — Swami Vivekananda

The Gita is a commentary on the Upanishads. The Upanishads are the Bible of India. — Swami Vivekananda

Plunge into the world, and then, after a time, when you have suffered and enjoyed all that is in it, will renunciation come; then will calmness come. So fulfill your desire for power and everything else, and after you have fulfilled the desire, will come the time when you will know that they are all very little things; but until you have fulfilled this desire, until you have passed through that activity, it is impossible for you to come to the state of calmness, serenity, and self-surrender. — Swami Vivekananda

Even the least work done for others awakens the power within; even thinking the least good of others gradually instills into the heart the strength of a lion. — Swami Vivekananda

The attempt to remove evil from the world by killing a thousand evil - doers, only adds to the evil in the world. — Swami Vivekananda

Misery is caused by ignorance and nothing else. — Swami Vivekananda

Renunciation, and renunciation alone, is the real secret, the Mulamantra, of all Realisation. — Swami Vivekananda

The same fire that cooks a meal for us may burn a child, and it is no fault of the fire if it does so; the difference lies in the way in which it is used. — Swami Vivekananda

The Gita is a bouquet composed of the beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Vedas and the Upanishads. — Swami Vivekananda

It is the hero alone, not the coward, who has liberation within his easy reach. — Swami Vivekananda

I am the thread that runs through all these pearls, and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runs through all of them; most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it. — Swami Vivekananda

The body is the external coating and the mind is the internal coating of the Atman who is the real perceiver, the real enjoyer, the being in the body who is working the body by means of the internal organ or the mind. — Swami Vivekananda

Manushya (man) is a being with Manas (mind); and as soon as his thinking power goes, he becomes no better than an animal. — Swami Vivekananda

Let us blame none, let us blame our own Karma. — Swami Vivekananda

Body is an unreal dream, and we think we are all bodies. — Swami Vivekananda

Therefore, beware of everything that takes away your freedom. Know that it is dangerous, and avoid it by all the means in your power. — Swami Vivekananda

Slowly and gradually we are to train ourselves. It is no joke - not a question of a day, or years, or maybe of births. Never mind! The pull must go on. Knowingly, voluntarily, the pull must go on. Inch by inch we will gain ground. We will begin to feel and get real possessions, which no one can take away from us - the wealth that no man can take, the wealth that nobody can destroy, the joy that no misery can hurt any more. — Swami Vivekananda

The sum total of all the cells in an organism is one person; so each soul is like one cell and the sum of them is God, and beyond that is the Absolute. — Swami Vivekananda

This is the great lesson that we are here to learn through myriads of births and heavens and hells-that there is nothing to be asked for, desired for, beyond one's spiritual Self (atman). — Swami Vivekananda

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

Everyone goes with the flow ...
but the one who goes against the flow becomes someone remarkable in life ... — Swami Vivekananda

Whatsoever has form must be the result of combinations of particles and requires something else behind it to move it. — Swami Vivekananda

[The seers call him wise] whose every attempt is free, without any desire for gain, without any selfishness. — Swami Vivekananda

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

True religion comes not front the teaching of men or the reading of books; it is the awakening of the spirit within us, consequent upon pure and heroic action. — Swami Vivekananda

The God which cannot give me food in this world, cannot give me Heaven in the other world — Swami Vivekananda

The natural ambition of woman is through marriage to climb up, leaning upon a man; but those days are gone. You shall be great without the help of any man, just as you are. — Swami Vivekananda

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