Never say NO, Never say, 'I cannot', for you are INFINITE. All the power is WITHIN you. You can do anything.
Swami VivekanandaBooks are only made so that they may point the way to a higher life; but no good results unless the path is trodden with unflinching steps!
Swami VivekanandaMark you, if you give up spirituality, leaving it aside to go after the materializing civilization of the West, the result will be that in three generations you will be an extinct race; because the backbone of the nation will be broken, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined, and the result will be annihilation all round.
Swami VivekanandaBe free; hope for nothing from anyone. I am sure if you look back upon your lives you will find that you were always vainly trying to get help from others which never came.
Swami VivekanandaA perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Life itself is a state of continuous struggle between ourselves and everything outside. Every moment we are fighting actually with external nature, and if we are defeated, our life has to go. It is, for instance, a continuous struggle for food and air. If food or air fails, we die. Life is not a simple and smoothly flowing thing, but it is a compound effect. This complex struggle between something inside and the external world is what we call life. So it is clear that when this struggle ceases, there will be an end of life.
Swami VivekanandaDo not go for glass beads leaving the mine of diamonds. This life is a great chance. What, seekest thou the pleasures of the world? He is the fountain of all bliss. See for the highest, aim at that highest, and you shall reach the highest.
Swami VivekanandaWe must not forget that health is only a means to an end. If health were the end, we would be like animals; animals rarely become unhealthy.
Swami VivekanandaIf there be no eternal life, still the enjoyment of spiritual thoughts as ideals is keener and makes a man happier, whilst the foolery of materialism leads to competition and undue ambition and ultimate death, individual and national.
Swami VivekanandaExperience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth until we experience it ourselves.
Swami VivekanandaIt is entirely wrong to think that we have done, or can do, good to the world, or to think that we have helped such and such people. It is a foolish thought, and all foolish thoughts bring misery. We think that we have helped some man and expect him to thank us, and because he does not, unhappiness comes to us. Why should we expect anything in return for what we do? 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?
Swami VivekanandaThose reformers who preach against image-worship, or what they denounce as idolatry - to them I say "Brothers, if you are fit to worship God-without-form discarding all external help, do so, but why do you condemn others who cannot do the same?"
Swami VivekanandaScience, art, learning and metaphysical research all have their proper functions in life, but if you seek to blend them, you destroy their individual characteristics until, in time, you eliminate the spiritual, for instance, from the religious altogether.
Swami VivekanandaAction will come. Fill yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, deified, by the very power of the thought. If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this thought to bear upon your life, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory.
Swami VivekanandaDo not blame any supernatural being, neither be hopeless and despondent, nor think we are in a place from which we can never escape unless someone comes and lends us a helping hand.
Swami VivekanandaChrist's public life extended only over eighteen months, and for this he had silently been preparing himself for thirty - two years.
Swami VivekanandaThe Indian mythology has a theory of cycles, that all progression is in the form of waves.
Swami VivekanandaThe Older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel
Swami VivekanandaOh, if only you knew yourselves! You are souls; you are Gods. If ever I feel like blaspheming, it is when I call you man.
Swami VivekanandaChildren of those ancient Aryans, through the grace of the Lord may you have the same pride, may that faith in your ancestors come into your blood, may it become a part and parcel of your lives, may it work towards the salvation of the world!
Swami VivekanandaThe only saint is that soul that never weakens, faces everything, and determines to die game.
Swami VivekanandaEach man has a mission in life, which is the result of all his infinite past Karma.
Swami VivekanandaWas there ever a sillier thing before in the world than what I saw in Malabar country? The poor Pariah is not allowed to pass through the same street as the high-caste man, but if he changes his name to a hodge-podge English name, it is all right; or to a Mohammedan name, it is all right.
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 VivekanandaWe get caught. How? Not by what we give but by what we expect. We get misery in return for our love: not from the fact that we love but from the fact that we want love in return. There is no misery where there is no want. Desire, want, is the father of all misery. Desires are bound by the laws of success and failure. Desires must bring misery.
Swami VivekanandaSay - i am the Atman in which my lower ego has become merged for ever. Be perfect in this idea; and then as long as the body endures, speak unto others this message of fearlessness: "Thou art That", "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached!"
Swami VivekanandaThe body must be properly taken care of. The people who torture their flesh are demoniacal.
Swami VivekanandaGod is to be worshiped as the one Beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life.
Swami VivekanandaThe finer the instrument, the greater the power. The mind is much finer and more powerful than the body.
Swami VivekanandaUntil higher institutions have been evolved, any attempt to break the old ones will be disastrous.
Swami VivekanandaThat is good. It is a law of nature. That is the way with all founders of religion. Without persecution superior ideas cannot penetrate into the heart of society.
Swami VivekanandaNot 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.
Swami VivekanandaWe know how often in our lives through laziness and cowardice we give up the battle and try to hypnotise our minds into the belief that we are brave.
Swami VivekanandaNo civilisation can grow unless fanatics, bloodshed, and brutality stop. No civilisation can begin to lift up its head until we look charitably upon one another; and the first step towards that much-needed charity is to look charitably and kindly upon the religious convictions of others. Nay more, to understand that not only should we be charitable, but positively helpful to each other, however different our religious ideas and convictions may be.
Swami Vivekananda