Quotes by Swami Vivekananda

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1. Choose the highest ideal and live your life upto that. Look

at the " ocean " and not at the wave.

 

2. That which tends to increase the divinity in you is virtue,

and that which tends to increase brutality in you is vice.

 

3. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the

diseased, really worships Shiva.

 

4. Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutely necessary

for anyone to be religious. Purity is strength. Spiritual truth is

purity.

 

5. The ideal of the man is to see God in everything. The real

evil is idleness which is the principal cause of our poverty.

 

6. Everyone should know that there is no salvation except

through the conquering of desires.

 

7. Death being so certain, it is better to die for a good cause.

 

8. Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.

 

9. Your country reqires heroes, be heroes!

 

10. To me the very essence of education is concentration of the

mind, not the collecting of facts.

 

11. Each soul is potentially divine.

 

12. Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and

man unto God.

 

13. All power is within you; you can do anything and everything.

Believe in that.

 

14. Work, work, work - let this be your motto.

 

15. Now the only way out is to listen to the words of the Lord in

the Gita.

 

16. Be a hero. Always say, " I have no fear " .

 

17. Struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it.

 

18. Feel that you are great and you become great.

 

19. To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness

of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not

religion.

 

20. At my will mountains will crumble up. Have that sort of

energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.

 

21. It is those foolish people who identify themselves with their

bodies that piteously cry, 'Weak, weak, we are weak'.

 

22. Keep the motto before you: " Elevation of the masses without

injuring their religion " .

 

23. Man never progresses from error to truth, but from truth to

truth, from lesser truth to higher truth.

 

24. Avoid all weakness, for weakness is sin, weakness is death.

 

25. Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they

may be. Nothing is ever gained by that.

 

26. I shall inspire men everywhere until the world shall know

that it is one with God.

 

27. Let us go forward and do yet greater things.

 

28. The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is.

 

29. Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed.

 

30. Knowledge exists, man only discovers it.

 

31. Give up all desire for enjoyment in earth or heaven.

 

32. Be courageous. Do not try to lead your brethren, but serve

them.

 

33. Be the witness and do not react, only thus can you be happy.

 

34. None can help you, help yourself; work out your own

salvation.

 

35. Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work.

 

36. Try to love anybody and everybody.

 

37. You have to gwo from the inside out. None can teach you, non

can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

 

38. Know it for certain that you are in everything.

 

39. Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year.

 

40. Let all your nerves vibrate through the backbone of your

religion.

 

41. Do not talk much, but feel the spirit within you.

 

42. If you want to be spiritual, you must renounce.

 

43. Your way is the best for you, but that is no sign that it is

the best for others.

 

44. Renounce the lower so that you may get the higher.

 

45. Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own

hearts and in every living being?

 

46. Your work is to serve the poor and miserable, without

distinction of caste or colour.

 

47. Help another because yu are in him and he is in you.

 

48. The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted,...let

these be your God. Know that service to these alone is the highest

religion.

 

49. If I am in the dark, let me light a lamp.

 

50. The earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice

themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all.

 

51. Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form

of worship of God.

 

52. We only get what we deserve. It is a lie when we say, the

world is bad and we are good. It can never be so.

 

53. You will understand the mighty strength of Krishna better

with a little of strong blood in you.

 

54. It is struggle against nature and not conformity to nature

that makes man what he is.

 

55. Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule,

opposition and then acceptance.

 

56. First there should be strict integrity...Secondly, entire

devotion to the cause

 

57. The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and

effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.

 

58. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest

infinite power.

 

59. Whatever you do, devote your whole Mind, Heart, and Soul to

it.

 

60. Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves

weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you

will be.

 

61. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the

beauty of life - these failures.

 

62. He works best who works without any motive, neither for

money, nor for fame, nor for anything else.

 

63. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not

believe in himself.

 

64. Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.

 

65. You should work like a master and not as a slave; work

incessantly, but do not do a slave's work

 

66. Believe that the soul is immortal, infinite and all powerful.

 

67. Even if the order be wrong, first obey and then contradict

it.

 

68. Be a hero. Always say, " I have no fear " .

 

69. Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance

we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God.