Swami Vivekananda Quotes

There is really no difference between matter, mind and Spirit. They are only different phases of experiencing the One.

Christ, Buddha, and Krishna are but waves in the Ocean of Infinite Consciousness that I am!

Oh, to live even for a day in the full light of freedom, to breathe the free air of simplicity! Isn't that the highest purity?

This is the central idea of the Gita- to be calm and steadfast in all circumstances, with one's body, mind, and soul centered at His hallowed feet!

Even the minds of animals, such as dogs, lions, cats, and serpents, become charmed with music.

[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.

Space-time-causation, or name-and-form, is what is called Maya.

Renunciation means that none can serve both God and Mammon.

When the body is still healthy and diseaseless, When old age has not yet attacked it

There is but one temple - the body. It is the only temple that ever existed.

Do not disturb the faith of any. . . Our duty is not to disturb the faith of others.

This world is not for cowards.

We must have life building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas.

Liberty is the first condition of growth. It is wrong, a thousand times wrong, if any of you dares to say, 'I will work out the salvation of this woman or child.

Marriage or non-marriage, good or evil, learning or ignorance, any of these is justified, if it leads to the goal.

Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted , cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky.

We have either to progress or to degenerate. Our ancestors did great things in the past, but we have to grow into a fuller life and march beyond even their great achievements.

Man the infinite dreamer, dreaming finite dreams!

Every wave of passion restrained is a balance in your favor. It is therefore good policy not to return anger for anger, as with all true morality.

The God which cannot give me food in this world, cannot give me Heaven in the other world

We are slaves in the hands of nature - slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything.

Do not run away, it is cowardice.

The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent.

Books 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!

Differentiation is in name and form only.

This attachment of Love to God is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages.

Eka-Nishtha or devotion to one ideal is absolutely necessary for the beginner in the practice of religious devotion.

Do not fret because the world looks with suspicion at every new attempt, even though it be in the path of spirituality.

We must be bright and cheerful. Long faces do not make religion. Religion should be the most joyful thing in the world, because it is the best.

In whatever name or form they are offered, all these flowers are laid at God's feet, for He is the one Lord of all, the one Soul of all souls.

The ignorant man never enjoys.

Without birth or death, eternal, ever-existing, free, unchangeable and beyond all conditions is this Soul of man - the real Self of Man - the Atman.

God is the ever active providence, by whose power systems after systems are being evolved out of chaos, made to run for a time and again destroyed.

Not one is constant, but everything is changing.

The attempt is to kill the false "I", so that the real "I", the Lord, will reign. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me," say the Hebrew scriptures.

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

The truths of Upanishadas are before you. Take them up, live up to them, and the salvation of Bharat will be at hand.

Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions and monstrosities.

How to transcend the senses without disturbing the health is what we want to learn.

God is not to be reached by the weak. Never be weak. You have infinite strength within you. How else will you conquer anything? How else will you come to God?

The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration.

Avoid all mystery. There is no mystery in religion.

Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe.

Through the imparting of moral principles, good behaviour, and education we must make the Chandala come up to the level of the Brahmana.

The glory of man is that he is a thinking being. It is the nature of man to think and therein he differs from animals

Each man must begin where he stands, must learn how to control the things that are nearest to him.

Perfection can never be attained by work.

The disciple must have great power of endurance. Bear all evil and misery without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy, or retaliation. That is true endurance, and that you must acquire.

We first observe facts, then generalise, and then draw conclusions or principles.

I am a slave of Ramakrishna, who left his work to be done by me and will not give me rest till I have finished it. And oh, how shall I speak of him? Oh, his love for me!