Swami Vivekananda Quotes

In the primal state before any manifestation, when there was no motion but perfect balance, this Prakriti was indestructible, because decomposition or death comes from instability or change.

The body is made by the thought that lies behind it. The body politic is thus the expression of national thought.

Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit.

All motion in this universe is in the form of waves, successively rising and falling.

I stand for truth. Truth will never ally itself with falsehood. Even if all the world should be against me, Truth must prevail in the end.

Friends or foes, they are all instruments in Her hands to help us work out our own karma, through pleasure or pain. As such, 'Mother' bless all.

The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence.

External nature is only internal nature writ large.

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

Perfection is not to be attained, it is already within us.

The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot.

The body is only a tool of the mind. What the mind dictates the body will have to obey. Now I do not even think of water. I do not miss it at all.... I see I can do anything.

Superstition is great enemy of man but bigotry is worse.

To make a great future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.

Charity is great, but the moment you say it is all, you run the risk of running into materialism.

Stand upon the Atman, then only can we truly love the world. Take a very, very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.

The real work is in the practice.

The whole universe is composed of name and form. Whatever we see is either a compound of name and form, or simply name with form which is a mental image.

Happiness presents itself to man, wearing the crown of sorrow on its head. He who welcomes it must also welcome sorrow.

We hear all around us about practical religion, and analysing all that, we find that it can be brought down to one conception - charity to our fellow beings.

Man is the highest being in creation, because he attains to freedom.

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

The very reason for nature's existence is the education of the soul; it has no other meaning.

A Sannyasin cannot belong to any religion, for his is a life of independent thought, which draws from all religions; his is a life of realisation, not merely of theory or belief, much less of dogma.

It is a retarding element creating hatred and anger, and causing people to fight each other, and making them unsympathetic.

Stand up, be bold, and take the blame on your own shoulders. Do not go about throwing mud at others; for all the faults you suffer from, you are the sole and only cause.

Highest love for God can never be achieved without renunciation.

Get away from all books and forms and let your soul see its Self. "We are deluded and maddened by books", Shri Krishna declares.

The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation.

Religion in India must be made as free and as easy of access as is God's air.

Law is death. The more of the law in a country, the worse for the country.

In a day, when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path

All these ideas such as astrology, although there may be a grain of truth in them, should be avoided.

It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.

You of the West are practical in business, practical in great inventions, but we of the East are practical in religion. You make commerce your business; we make religion our business.

Man dies but once. My disciples must not be cowards.

It is the subjective world that rules the objective. Change the subject, and the object is bound to change; purify youreslf, and the world is bound to be purified.

We must plunge heart and soul and body into the work. And until we are ready to sacrifice everything else to one Idea and to one alone, we never, never will see the Light.

Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us.

Three things are necessary to make every man great,every nation great1.Conviction of the powers of goodness.2.Absence of jealousy and suspicion.3.Helping all who are trying to be and do good.

There is nothing so high as renunciation of self.

The world is a demon. It is a kingdom of which the puny ego is king. Put it away and stand firm.

Business is business, no child's play.

Thought is like a bubble rising to the surface. When thought is joined to will, we call it power. That which strikes the sick person whom you are trying to help is not thought, but power.

Self-sacrifice, not self-assertion, is the law of the highest universe.

The body cannot be the soul.

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

Man cannot be satisfied by wealth. Man cannot go beyond his nature, no more than you can jump out of your body.

The Hindus have to learn a little bit of materialism from the West and teach them a little bit of spirituality.

How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.