Book detail: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book includes a wide range of Swami Vivekananda's teachings on spirituality, philosophy, and social issues, offering insights into his thoughts on various aspects of life and the human condition.
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“Self-sacrifice, not self-assertion, is the law of the highest universe.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“When once you consider an action, do not let anything dissuade you. Consult your heart, not others, and then follow its dictates.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Each one has a special nature peculiar to himself which he must follow and through which he will find his way to freedom”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“There is no other teacher but your own soul.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Do not look back upon what has been done. Go Ahead.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Do not say, ‘You are bad’; say only, ‘You are good’, but be better!”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Rama, the ancient idol of the heroic ages, the embodiment of truth, of morality, the ideal son, the ideal husband, and above all, the ideal king, this Rama has been presented before us by the great sage Valmiki. No language can be purer, none chaster, none more beautiful, and at the same time simpler, than the language in which the great poet has depicted the life of Rama.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Crossing over mountains, rivers, arid oceans, setting at naught, as it were, the obstacles of the distance of space and time, the blood of Indian thought has flowed, and is still flowing into the veins of other nations of the globe, whether in a distinct or in some subtle unknown way. Perhaps to us belongs the major portion of the universal ancient inheritance.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Art is - representing the beautiful. There must be Art in everything.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Art must be in touch with nature - and wherever that touch is gone, Art degenerates - yet it must be above nature.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Even luxuries are arranged according to ideas and ideals, to make them reflect as much of thought-life as possible - and this is Art.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Is there no room for art in the spoken language? What is the use of creating an unnatural language to the exclusion of the natural one?”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Science, art, learning and metaphysical research all have their proper functions in life, but if you seek to blend them, you destroy their individual characteristics until, in time, you eliminate the spiritual, for instance, from the religious altogether.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The secret of Greek Art is its imitation of nature even to the minutest details; whereas the secret of Indian Art is to represent the ideal. The energy of the Greek painter is spent in perhaps painting a piece of flesh, and he is so successful that a dog is deluded into taking it to be a real bit of meat and so goes to bite it. Now, what glory is there in merely imitating nature? Why not place an actual bit of flesh before the dog?”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Every atom is trying to go and join itself to the next atom. Atoms after atoms combine, making huge balls, the earths, the suns, the moons, the stars, the planets. They in their turn, are trying to rush towards each other, and at last, we know that the whole universe, mental and material, will be fused into one.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Every one is struggling for freedom-from the atom to the star. The ignorant man is satisfied if he can get freedom within a certain limit-if he can get rid of the bondage of hunger or of being thirsty. But that sage feels that there is a stronger bondage which has to be thrown off. He would not consider the freedom of the Red Indian as freedom at all.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Not one atom can rest until it finds its freedom.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“One atom in this universe cannot move without dragging the whole world along with it. There cannot be any progress without the whole world following in the wake, and it is becoming every day dearer that the solution of any problem can never be attained on racial, or national, or narrow grounds.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The atom cannot disobey the law. Whether it is the mental or the physical atom, it must obey the law. "What is the use of [external restraint]?"”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“If superstition enters, the brain is gone.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Impurity is a mere superimposition under which your real nature has become hidden. But the real you is already perfect, already strong.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Only those who want nothing are masters of Nature.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Experience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth until we experience it ourselves.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the universe. Like the silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself.... Burst your own cocoon and come out as the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. Then alone you will see Truth.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The happiest moments we ever know are when we entirely forget ourselves.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone. Let it be so great, so strong, that there may be nothing else left in the mind; no place for anything else, no time for anything else.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“National prosperity is another name for death and degradation to millions of other races.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The body is made by the thought that lies behind it. The body politic is thus the expression of national thought.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“When death is so certain, it is better to die for a good cause.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“If you can get rid of your attachment to a single thing, you are on the way to liberation.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Compared to the coward that never made the attempt, he is a hero.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Do not fret because the world looks with suspicion at every new attempt, even though it be in the path of spirituality.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Even if our every attempt is a failure, and we bleed and are torn asunder, yet, through all this, we have to preserve our heart - we must assert our Godhead in the midst of all these difficulties.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“In every attempt there are many obstacles to cope with, but gradually the path becomes smooth.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Life in this world is an attempt to see God.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Never even attempt to disturb anyone's tendencies.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Never mind these failures, these little backslidings; hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Shri Krishna says: "Better die in your own path than attempt the path of another."”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“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.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“[The seers call him wise] whose every attempt is free, without any desire for gain, without any selfishness.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Until higher institutions have been evolved, any attempt to break the old ones will be disastrous.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Free thyself from the mighty attraction-
The maddening wine of love, the charm of sex.
Break the harp! Forward, with the ocean's cry!. . .”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Purusha is the; great attraction of the universe; though untouched by and unconnected with the universe, yet it attracts the whole; universe.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Whenever two particles come together, they are held by a certain attraction; and there will come a time when those particles will separate. This is the eternal law. So, wherever there is a body - either grosser or finer, either in heaven or on earth - death will overcome it.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“According to the law of nature, wherever there is an awakening of a new and stronger life, there it tries to conquer and take the place of the old and the decaying. Nature favours the dying out of the unfit and the survival of the fittest. The final result of such conflict between the priestly and the other classes has been mentioned already.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“In these days of intellectual awakening and steadily asserting public opinion, the holy places of the Hindus, their condition, and method of work have not escaped tile keen eye of criticism; and this city, being the holy of holies to all Hindus, has not failed to attract its full share of censure.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda