Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power.

Man in his true nature is substance, soul, spirit.

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

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.

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.

For a time it seemed inevitable that the surging tide of agnosticism and materialism would sweep all before it. There were those who did not dare utter what they thought. Many thought the case hopeless and the cause of religion lost once and for ever. But the tide has turned and to the rescue has come - what? The study of comparative religions. By the study of different religions we find that in essence they are one.

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

When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.

[Perfection] is only possible if the mind of man is changed, if he, of his own sweet will, changes his mind; and the great difficulty is, neither can he force his own mind.

There is but one soul throughout the universe, all is but one existence - "Thou art in the woman, thou in the man, thou in the young man walking in the pride of youth, thou in the old man tottering on his stick - thou art All - in all, in everything, and I am thee, because I am made from thee."

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!

We shall progress inch by inch.

The effect is delusion, and therefore the cause must be delusion.

Man as Atman is really free; as man he is bound, changed by every physical condition.

Knowledge of the Absolute depends upon no book, nor upon anything; it is absolute in itself. No amount of study will give this knowledge; is not theory, it is realization. Cleanse the dust from the mirror, purify your own mind, and in a flash you know that you are Brahman.

Neither idealists nor materialists are right; we must take both idea and expression.

Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die.

We are for ever trying to make our weakness look like strength, our sentiment like love, our cowardice like courage, and so on.

Each man is divine. Each man that you see is a God by his very nature.

When we use our imagination properly it is our greatest friend; it goes belyond reason and is the only light that takes us everywhere.

This craving for health, wealth, long life, and the like - the so - called good - is nothing but an illusion.

I want each one of my children to be a hundred times greater than I could ever be. Everyone of you must be a giant- must, that is my word. Obedience, readiness, and love for the cause- if you have these three, nothing can hold you back.

Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.

Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.

The soul ... is nameless because it is formless. It will neither go to heaven nor [to hell] any more than it will enter this glass.

Let us blame none, let us blame our own Karma.

Do not look back upon what has been done. Go Ahead.

Morality is the struggle of the bound will to get free and is the proof that we have come from perfection. . . .

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will.

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, and everything will be a failure. But those who do their duties as they go, putting their shoulders to the wheel, will see the light, and higher duties will fall to their share.

When we come to nonattachment, then we can understand the marvelous mystery of the universe: how it is intense activity and at the same time intense peace, how it is work every moment and rest every moment.

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

Whatever you think, that you will be.

My bones are destined to make corals in the Ganga.

We should cultivate the optimistic temperament, and endeavour to see the good that dwells in everything. If we sit down and lament over the imperfection of our bodies and our minds, we profit nothing; it is the heroic endeavour to subdue adverse circumstances that carries our spirit upward.

In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.

Siva, O Siva, carry my boat to the other shore!

The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are the better for us and the more the amount of work we can do.

Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization.

Purity, patience and perseverance are the three essentials to success and above all love.

As the cause is, so the effect will be Cause is never different from effect, the effect is but the cause reproduced in another form.

The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is not the fault of the fire.

There is implanted in every man, naturally, a strong desire for progress.

Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure.

There may be a million microbes of misery floating about us. Never mind! They dare not approach us, they have no power to get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened.

Never are we nearer the Light than when the darkness is deepest.

Out of Mahat comes universal egoism.

We want Shraddhâ, we want faith in our own selves. Strength is life, weakness is death. 'We are the Âtman, deathless and free; pure, pure by nature. Can we ever commit any sin? Impossible!' - such a faith is needed. Such a faith makes men of us, makes gods of us. It is by losing this idea of Shraddha that the country has gone to ruin.