We are all the time, from our childhood, trying to lay the blame upon something outside ourselves. We are always standing up to set right other people, and not ourselves. If we are miserable, we say, "Oh, the world is a devil's world." We curse others and say, "What infatuated fools!" But why should we be in such a world, if we really are so good? If this is a devil's world, we must be devils also; why else should we be here? "Oh, the people of the world are so selfish!" True enough; but why should we be found in that company, if we be better? Just think of that.
Swami VivekanandaIs it freedom to be a slave to the senses, to anger, to jealousies and a hundred other petty things that must occur every day in human life?
Swami VivekanandaThis ego - the less there is of it, the nearer I am to that which I really am: the universal body.
Swami VivekanandaEach 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 VivekanandaThe body is subject to the law of growth and decay, what grows must of necessity decay.
Swami VivekanandaThat intense faith in another world, that intense hatred for this world, that intense power of renunciation, that intense faith in God, that intense faith in the immortal soul, is in you. I challenge anyone to give it up. You cannot. You may try to impose upon me by becoming materialists, by talking materialism for a few months, but I know what you are; if I take you by the hand, back you come as good theists as ever were born. How can you change your nature?
Swami Vivekananda