Inspiring Quotes by Swami Vivekananda

For those who are not familiar with Swami Vivekananda, A spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power. A great saint lived in India and visited many other countries to spread his Master's (Shri Ramakrishna Baramahamsa) Message. The speech given at Chicago was a real boost for his presence to the world. If you want to hear those speeches, click here to download and listen.

• Choose the highest ideal and live your life upto that. Look at the "ocean" and not at the wave.


• That which tends to increase the divinity in you is virtue, and that which tends to increase brutality in you is vice.


• He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva.


• Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutely necessary for anyone to be religious. Purity is strength. Spiritual truth is purity.


• The ideal of the man is to see God in everything. The real evil is idleness which is the principal cause of our poverty.


• Everyone should know that there is no salvation except through the conquering of desires.


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


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


• Your country reqires heroes, be heroes!


• To me the very essence of education is concentration of the mind, not the collecting of facts.


• Each soul is potentially divine.


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


• All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that.


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


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


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


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


• Feel that you are great and you become great.


• 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.


• At my will mountains will crumble up. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.


• It is those foolish people who identify themselves with their bodies that piteously cry, 'Weak, weak, we are weak'.


• Keep the motto before you: "Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion".


• Man never progresses from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lesser truth to higher truth.


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


• Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that.


• I shall inspire men everywhere until the world shall know that it is one with God.


• Let us go forward and do yet greater things.


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


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


• Knowledge exists, man only discovers it.


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


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


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


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


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


• Try to love anybody and everybody.


• 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.


• Know it for certain that you are in everything.


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


• Let all your nerves vibrate through the backbone of your religion.


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


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


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


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


• Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?


• Your work is to serve the poor and miserable, without distinction of caste or colour.


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


• The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted,...let these be your God. Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.


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


• The earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all.


• Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.


• 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.


• You will understand the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you.


• It is struggle against nature and not conformity to nature that makes man what he is.


• Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition and then acceptance.


• First there should be strict integrity...Secondly, entire devotion to the cause


• The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.


• You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.


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


• 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.


• Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life - these failures.


• He works best who works without any motive, neither for money, nor for fame, nor for anything else.


• The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.


• Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.


• You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do a slave's work


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


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


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


• Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God.