The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe.

Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.

A hero is a man who does what he can.

There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it.

History furnishes to politics all the arguments that it needs, for the chosen cause.

Any man who is really a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others.

His (Swami Vivekananda) words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!