Swami Vivekananda Quotes

My bones are destined to make corals in the Ganga.

Music is the highest art and to those who understand, is the highest worship

We never change, we never die, and we are never born.

This is the principle of Universal Brotherhood of man with one another, with all life down to the little ants.

A wave in the ocean is a wave, only in so far as it is bound by name and form.

It is nature that is changing, not the soul of man. This never changes.

Modern Hinduism, modern Jainism, and Buddhism branched off at the same time. For some period, each seemed to have wanted to outdo the others in grotesqueness and humbuggism.

Hinduism is the mother of all religions

Turn thy gaze inward, wherein resides the Supreme Self.

Each nation has an identity and destiny. As far as Bharat is concerned, Hindu is its identity and religion is its way of working

Man is the product of two forces, action and reaction, which make him think.

Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are ...but unless you realize the Truth, there is no freedom.

The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe-the body-is the soul.

Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let us calmly go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary fretting and fuming.

Art is - representing the beautiful. There must be Art in everything.

You have heard that Christ said, 'My words are spirit and they are life'. So are my words spirit and life; they will burn their way into your brain and you will never get away from them!

If I am a Pariah, I will be all the more glad, for I am the disciple of a man, who - the Brahmin of Brahmins - wanted to cleanse the house of a Pariah. (here "the man" means Ramakrishna)

Renunciation is the very basis upon which ethics stands. There never was an ethical code preached which had not renunciation for its basis.

Religion in India culminates in freedom.

The best principles in our lives were those which we heard from our mothers through our ears.

None of us have yet seen an ideally perfect man, and yet without that ideal we cannot progress.

The cause of today is the effect of the past and the cause for the future.

He whose book of the heart has been opened needs no other books.

One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom

The help which tends to make us spiritually strong is the highest help, next to it comes intellectual help and after that comes physical help.

Man can become like God and acquire control over the whole universe if he multiplies infinitely his centre of self-consciousness.

I have come to this conclusion that there is only one country in the world which understands religion - it is India.

Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end.

Have faith in yourselves, be proud of your ancestors, instead of being ashamed of them.

Shri Ramakrishna use 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.

Even luxuries are arranged according to ideas and ideals, to make them reflect as much of thought-life as possible - and this is Art.

Each man has a mission in life, which is the result of all his infinite past Karma.

All the forces that are working in this body have been produced out of food; we see that every day.

It is the calm, forgiving, equable, well-balanced mind that does the greatest amount of work.

We must approach religion with reverence and with love, and our heart will stand up and say, this is truth, and this is untruth.

Our religion teaches that anger is a great sin, even if it is "righteous".

Books cannot teach God, but they can destroy ignorance; their action is negative.

Never even attempt to disturb anyone's tendencies.

What we call powers, secrets of nature, and force, are all within. In the external world are only a series of changes.

Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us.

Perfect sincerity, holiness, gigantic intellect, and all-conquering will. Let only a handful of men work with these, and the whole world will be revolutionized.

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

The finer the instrument, the greater the power. The mind is much finer and more powerful than the body.

Where you find the attraction for lust and wealth considerably diminished, to whatever creed he may belong, know that his inner spirit is awakening.

The whole point is to discipline the mind.

What we want is progress, development, realisation.

Brave, bold people, these are what we want.

The law of attraction which holds good for the heavenly bodies also holds good for the smallest particles.

Not one atom can rest until it finds its freedom.

The mind generally takes up various objects, runs into all sorts of things. That is the lower state. There is a higher state of the mind, when it takes up one object and excludes all others.