Swami Vivekananda’s
150 Quotes
(WORTH READING..READ AS MUCH YOU CAN AND SHARE IT)
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. 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 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 love's 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 eyes and 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 in a 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, go down 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 the Spirit, 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.
“beleive 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 treveling 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 ourselves. 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 to others “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 ourselves. 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 your selves. 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.”
(Source: Internet)
