Swami Vivekananda – Quotes
Biography
21
Effective Quotation of Swami Vivekananda
1.
If the mind is intensely eager, everything can be accomplished—mountains can be
crumbled into atoms.
2. Take
up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on
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.
3.
Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours,
stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you every felt you wanted to
do that, you have felt God.
4.
All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite
library of the universe is in our own mind.
5.
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
succor you want is within yourself. Therefore make your own future. 6.
There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the
universe. Like the silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself…. Burst
your own cocoon and come out aw the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. Then
alone you will see Truth.
7. 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. First, believe in this
world, that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is
good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not
understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!
8. Hold to the idea, “I am not the mind, I see that I am
thinking, I am watching my mind act,” and each day the identification of
yourself with thoughts and feelings will grow less, until at last you can entirely
separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself.
9. All
love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only
law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for
love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.
10.
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.
11.
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.
12.
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.
13.
Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then
acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.
14.
If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage.
If you know that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge,
knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all nature.
15.
As long as we believe ourselves to
be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know
ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid?
16.
Your Atman is the support of the universe—whose support do you stand in need
of? 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.
17.
Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is
the heart that is the seat of all power. It is not in the brain but in the
heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge, power, and activity, has its
seat.
18.
Understanding human nature is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing it can
we know God? It is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highest knowledge,
and only by knowing God can we understand human nature
19.
Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and,
above all, love.
20.
If you want to have life, you have to die every moment for it. Life and death
are only different expressions of the same thing looked at from different standpoints;
they are the falling and the rising of the same wave, and the two form one
whole.
21.
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within
by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or
worship or psychic control or philosophy – by one or more or all of these and
be free.
1. “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.”
2. “Take up one idea. Make that one
idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and live on that idea. Letthe brain,
muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave
every otheridea alone. This is the way to success that is way great spiritual
giants are produced.”
3. “In a conflict between the heart
and the brain, follow your heart.”
4. “When I Asked God for
Strength He Gave Me Difficult Situations to Face
When I Asked God for Brain & Brown He
Gave Me Puzzles in Life to Solve
When I Asked God for Happiness He Showed
Me Some Unhappy People
When I Asked God for Wealth He Showed
Me How to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Favors He
Showed Me Opportunities to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Peace He Showed
Me How to Help Others
God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted
He Gave Me Everything I
Needed.”
5. “In a day, when you don’t come across any problems
- you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path”
6. “Dare to be free, dare to go as
far as you’re thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.”
7. “All love is expansion, all
selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves
lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for loves sake, because it is
law of life, just as you breathe to live. ”
8. “Be not afraid of anything. You
will do Marvelous work. It is Fearlessness that brings Heaven even in a
moment.”
9. “The great secret of true
success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return,
the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.”
10. “The greatest religion is to be true to
your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.”
11. “Comfort is no test of truth.
Truth is often far from being comfortable.”
12. “The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is
not the fault of the fire.”
13. “We are what our thoughts have
made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live;
they travel far. ”
14. “They alone live,
who live for others.”
15. “We reap what we sow we are the
makers of our own fate. The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are
unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their
sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of the wind? We make our
own destiny. ”
16. “Strength is Life, Weakness is
Death. Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death. Love is Life, Hatred is Death.”
17. “All power is within you, you
can do, anything and everything. Believe in that do not believe that you are
weak. You can do anything and everything, without even the guidance of any one.
Stand up and express the divinity within you…, within each of you there is the
power to remove all wants and all miseries. ”
18. “Neither seeks
nor avoids, take what comes.”
19. “You cannot believe in God until
you believe in yourself.”
20. “Ask nothing;
want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you,
but do not think of that now.”
21. “All differences in this world
are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.”
22. “Do one thing at a Time, and
while doing it put your whole Soul into it to the exclusion of all else.”
23. “We are what our thoughts have
made us; so take care about that you think.”
24. “Anything that
makes weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.”
25. “Whatever you think that you
will be. If you think yourself weak, weak you will be;if you think yourself
strong, you will be”
26. “Was there ever a more horrible
blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this
or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him
within the covers of a little book!”
27. “Man is to become
divine by realizing the divine. Idols or temples, or churches or books, are
only the supports, the help of his spiritual childhood.”
28. “We are responsible for what we
are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.
If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows
that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present
actions; so we have to know how to act.”
29. “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.”
30.“Learn Everything that is Good
from Others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it; do not become
others.”
31. “This is a great fact: strength
is life; weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness
is constant strain and misery, weakness is death.”
32. “Each soul is potentially
divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and
internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy
- by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of
religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are
but secondary details.”
33. “Each work has to pass through
these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead
of their time are sure to be misunderstood.”
34. “The greatest sin
is to think yourself weak”
35. “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.”
36. “Arise, awake, stop not until
your goal is achieved.”
37. “Blessed are they whose bodies
get destroyed in the service of others.”
38. “If a man can realize his divine
nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call that a sin? Nor,
even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error. [...] man is
not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to
higher truth. To him all the religions from the lowest fetishism to the highest
absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the Infinite,
each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these
marks a stage of progress; and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and
higher, gathering more and more strength till it reaches the Glorious Sun.”
39. “The cheerful mind perseveres
and the strong mind hews its way through a thousand difficulties.”
40. “The brain and muscles must
develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with an intelligent brain — and the whole
world is at your feet.”
41. “All the powers in the universe
are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eye sand cry that
it is dark.”
42.“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.”
43.“The world is the great gymnasium
where we come to make ourselves strong.”
44. “A few heart-whole, sincere, and
energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob ina century.”
45. “The only religion that ought to
be taught is the religion of fearlessness. Either in this world or in the world
of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It
is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And
what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature.”
46. “All knowledge that the world
has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is
in our own mind.”
47. “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. Stand up and express the divinity within you.”
48.“All truth is eternal. Truth is
nobody’s property; no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it.
Truth is the nature of all souls.”
49. “Astrology and all these
mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they
are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food,
and rest.”
50. “This attachment of Love to God
is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its
bondages.”
51. “Be strong! … You talk of ghosts
and devils. We are the living devils. The sign of life is strength and growth.
The sign of death is weakness. Whatever is weak, avoid! It is death. If it is
strength, god own into hell and get hold of it! There is salvation only for the
brave. "None but the brave deserves the fair." None but the bravest
deserves salvation.”
52. “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.”
53. “Desire,
ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage.”
54. “Don’t look back—forward,
infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then
alone can great deeds be accomplished.”
55. “Bless people when they revile
you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego.”
56. “Have Faith in Man, whether he
appears to you to be a very learned one or a most ignorant one.”
57. “If the Student thinks he is the
Spirit, he will be a better Student. If the Lawyer thinks he is theSpirit, he
will be a better Lawyer, and so on.”
58. “The Tapas and the other hard
Yogas that were practiced in other Yugas do not work now. What is needed in
this Yuga is giving, helping others. ”
59. “Believe in
yourself and the world will be at your feet”
60. “Shri Ramakrishna uses to say,
"As Long as I Live, so long do I learn". That man or that society which
has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death.”
61.“The Heart and core of everything
here is good, that whatever may be the surface waves, deep down and underlying
everything, there is an infinite basis of Goodness and Love.”
62. “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.”
63. “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.”
64.“Our duty is to encourage
everyone 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.”
65. “The will is not free - it is a
phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will
which is free.”
66. “Truth can be
stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.”
67. “Religion is being and becoming.
Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.”
68. “He is an atheist who does not
believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not
believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not
believe in himself.”
69. “The earth is
enjoyed by heroes”—this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have
no fear.”
70. “Take up one idea. Make that one
idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and 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.”
71. “After every happiness comes
misery; they may be far apart or near. The more advanced the soul, the more
quickly does one follow the other. What we want is neither happiness nor
misery. Both make us forget our true nature; both are chains--one iron, one
gold; behind both is the Atman, who knows neither happiness nor misery. These
are states, and states must ever change; but the nature of the Atman is bliss,
peace, unchanging. We have not to get it; we have it; only wash away the dross
and see it.”
72. “God is present
in every Jiva; there is no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva serves God indeed.”
73. “Be not afraid, for all great
power throughout the history of humanity has been with the people. From out of
their ranks have come all the greatest geniuses of the world and history can
only repeat itself. Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work.”
74. “Devotion to duty
is the highest form of worship of God.”
75. “By doing well the duty which is
nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands, we make ourselves stronger”
76. “We are allowed to worship him.
Stand in that reverent attitude to the whole universe, and then will come
perfect non attachment”
77. “Be Grateful to the Man you
help, think of Him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship
God by helping our fellow men?”
78. “This universe is the wreckage
of the infinite on the shores of the finite.”
79. “In a day, when you don’t come
across any problems, you can be sure that you are traveling in a wrong path”
80. “We must be
Bright and Cheerful, long faces do not make Religion”
81. “Now is wanted intense
Karma-Yoga with unbounded courage and indomitable strength in the heart. Then
only will the people of the country be roused.”
82. “The whole universe is only the
self with variations, one tune made bearable by variations. Sometimes there are
discords, but they only make the subsequent harmony more perfect.”
83.“If in this hell of a world one
can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single
person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my
life; all else is mere moonshine. . . .”
84. “Put the good before them, see
how eagerly they take it, see how the divine that never dies, that is always
living in the human...”
85. “The Older I grow, the more
everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel”
86. “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.”
87. “GOD is to be worshipped as the
one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.”
88. “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.”
89. “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.”
90. “The more we come out and do
good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.”
91. “When an idea exclusively
occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.”
92. “Where can we go to find God if
we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.”
93. “All condemnation of others
really condemns our selves. Adjust the microcosm which is in your power to do)
and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you.”
94. “There is no limit to the power
of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to
bear on one point”
95. “Take up one idea. Make that one
idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and live on 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.”
96.“A tremendous stream is flowing
toward the ocean, carrying us all along with it; and though like straws and
scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about, in the long run we are
sure to join the Ocean of Life and Bliss.”
97. “The more we grow in Love,
Virtue and Holiness, the more we see Love, Virtue and Holiness outside.”
98. “What is now wanted is a
combination of the greatest heart with the highest intellectuality, of infinite
love with infinite knowledge.”
99. “Above all, beware of
compromises. Hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust
them to others’ “fads” through the greed of getting supporters. Your Atman is
the support of the universe—whose support do you stand in need of?”
100. “Above all, beware of
compromises. I do not mean that you are to get into antagonism with anybody,
but you have to hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust
them too thers “fads” thought the greed of getting supporters.”
101. “Why should a Man be Moral?
Because this strengthens his will.”
102. “This World will always
continue to be a mixture of Good and Evil. Our duty is to sympathize with the
weak and to Love even the wrongdoer.”
103. “All who have actually attained
any real religious experience never wrangle over the form in which the
different religions are expressed. They know that the soul of all religions is
the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does
not speak in the same tongue.”
104. “Anything that brings
spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet.”
105. “Are you unselfish? That is the
question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious
book, without going into a single church or temple.”
106. “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.”
107. “The Land where humanity has
attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity,
towards calmness - it is India.”
108. “Education is the manifestation
of perfection already existing in man.”
109. “Desire can be eradicated from
the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha,
Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God.”
110“My Faith is in the Younger
Generation, the Modern Generation, out of them will come my workers. They will
work Out the whole problem, like Lions.”
111.“It is the Level-headed Man, the
Calm Man, of Good Judgment and cool nerves, of Great sympathy and love, who
does good work and so does good to himself.”
112. “First, believe in the
world—that there is meaning behind everything”
113. “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.”
114. “Tell the truth boldly, whether
it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent
people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.”
115. “This life is a hard fact; work
your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is
stronger. “
116.”This I have seen in life—those
who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step; those
who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace; and those who
are always afraid of loss, always lose. “
117.“Face the brutes.” That is a
lesson for all life—face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the
hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.”
118.”Those who work at a thing heart
and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that
they also realize the supreme truth—Brahman. Those who work at a thing with their
whole heart receive help from God.”
119.”I, for one, thoroughly believe
that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they Really
deserve.”
120.”The whole secret of existence
is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only
the moments you reject all help are you free.”
121.”Fear is death, fear is sin,
fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, and fear is wrong life. All the negative
thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit
of fear. “
122.”Why are people so afraid? The
answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We
are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a
Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us. “
123.”As long as we believe ourselves
to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know
ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid?”
124.”There is one thing to be
remembered: that the assertion—I am God—cannot be made with regard to the
sense-world.”
125.”All that is real in me is God;
all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus
by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us. “
126.”First get rid of the delusion
“I am the body”, and then only will we want real knowledge.”
127.”What the world wants is
character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless.
That love will make every word tell like a thunderbolt.”
128. “God is merciful to those whom
He sees struggling heart and soul for realization. But remain idle, without any
struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come.”
129. “We have to go back to
philosophy to treat things as they are. We are suffering from our own karma. It
is not the fault of God. What we do is our own fault, nothing else. Why should
God be blamed?”
130. “Fill the brain with high
thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that
will come great work.”
131. “Who makes us ignorant? We our selves.
We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.
132. “We must have friendship for
all; we must be merciful toward those that are in misery; when people are
happy, we ought to be happy; and to the wicked we must be indifferent. These
attitudes will make the mind peaceful.”
133. “Every action that helps us
manifest our divine nature more and more is good; every action that retards it
is evil.”
134. “Are great things ever done
smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.”
135. “Great work requires great and
persistent effort for a long time. … Character has to be established through a
thousand stumbles.”
136. “Those who grumble at the
little thing that has fallen to their lot to do will grumble at everything.
Always grumbling they will lead a miserable life…. But those who do their duty
putting their shoulder to the wheel will see the light, and higher and higher
duties will fall to their share.”
137. “Learning and wisdom are
superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat
of all power.”
138. “Watch people do their most
common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real
character of a great person.”
139. “Whenever we attain a higher
vision, the lower vision disappears of itself.”
140. “We came to enjoy; we are being
enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being
worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our
life.”
141. “We are ever free if we would
only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal,
ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.”
142. “Stand as a rock; you are
indestructible. You are the Self (atman), the God of the universe.”
143. “Stand upon the Self, only then
can we truly love the world. Take a very high stand; knowing our universal
nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.”
144."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.”
145. “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 succor you want is within
yourselves. Therefore, make your own future.”
146. “It is the patient building of
character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in
the future of humanity.”
147. “If there is one word that you
find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon
masses of ignorance, it is the word “fearlessness.””
148. “The world is ready to give up
its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give it the necessary blow.
The strength and force of the blow come through concentration.”
149. “Work and worship are necessary
to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion.”
150. “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.”
