Swami Vivekananda Quotes

The coward is an object to be pitied.

Never can a reforming sect survive if it is only reforming; the formative elements alone - the real impulse, that is, the principles - live on and on.

There are the altars, but here is the greatest of altars, the living, conscious human body, and to worship at this altar is far higher than the worship of any dead symbols.

The world cares little for principles. They care for persons.

Forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness.

We never want Him. We say, "Lord, give me a fine house." We want the house, not Him. "Give me health! Save me from this difficulty!" When a man wants nothing but Him, [he gets Him].

Come out into the broad light of day, come out from the little narrow paths, for how can the infinite soul rest content to live and die in small ruts?

Religion is the peculiarity of the growth of the Indian mind.

The guide, the guru, the leader, the teacher, has passed away; the boy, the student, the servant, is left behind.

Jiva (individual soul) is the conscious ruler of this body, in whom the five life principles come into unity, and yet that very Jiva is the Atman, because all is Atman.

According to us, there are three things in the makeup of man. There is the body, there is the mind, and there is the soul.

He who wants to become a Bhakta must be strong, must be healthy.

The progress of the world means more enjoyment and more misery too.

The mind has to be gradually and systematically brought under control.

We know there is no progress in a straight line.

The only way to study the mind is to get at facts, and then intellect will arrange them and deduce the principles.

Accumulation of power is as necessary as its diffusion, or rather more so.

High achievements in art, music, etc., are the results of concentration.

The sum total or Ishwara may be said to be All-good, Almighty, and Omniscient. These are obvious qualities, and need no argument to prove, from the very fact of totality.

Everything, both mental and physical, is rigidly bound by the law of causation.

The Land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness - it is India.

Everything is substance plus name and form. Name and form come and go, but substance remains ever the same.

Love for yourselves means [in the end] love for everything.

Well has it been said that man is the only animal that naturally looks upwards; every other animal naturally looks down.

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.

Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and this nature is both internal and external.

None will be able to resist truth and love and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish even unto death, and loving? Then fear not, not even death.

All law has its essence in causation.

We must not forget that health is only a means to an end. If health were the end, we would be like animals; animals rarely become unhealthy.

In the English character, the "give and take" policy, the business principle of the trader, is principally inherent.

If the mind is pleased with praise, it will be displeased with blame.

A monk is not forbidden to marry, but if he takes a wife she becomes a monk with the same powers and privileges and occupies the same social position as her husband.

Life in this world is an attempt to see God.

Is God to blame for what I myself have done?

Praise and blame, good and bad, even heat and cold, must be equally acceptable to us.

Many a time comes when we want to interpret our weakness and cowardice as forgiveness and renunciation.

Man is not mind, he is soul.

All power is His and within His command.

All want power, but few will wait to gain it for themselves.

Even the least work done for others awakens the power within.

You and I and everything in the universe are that Absolute, not parts, but the whole. You are the whole of that Absolute, and so are all others, because the idea of part cannot come into it.

Men may have given millions of dollars and fed rats and cats, as some do in India. They say that men can take care of themselves, but the poor animals cannot. . .

Woman has suffered for eons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite perseverance.

Each one has a special nature peculiar to himself which he must follow and through which he will find his way to freedom

Art must be in touch with nature - and wherever that touch is gone, Art degenerates - yet it must be above nature.

Every artist paints his Madonna according to his own pre-conceived ideas.

In art, interest must be centred on the principal theme.

As soon as we identify ourselves with the work we do, we feel miserable; but if we do not identify ourselves with it, we do not feel that misery.

Attachment comes only where we expect a return.

When the last moment arrives, praise and blame will be the same to you, to me, and to others. We are here to work, and will have to leave all when the call comes.