Quotessence
Home / Authors / Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsWorldMotivationalMindSoulBodyThinkingInspirationalKnowsUniverseWholeWantGivingIdeasHeartInfiniteFormHelpingHuman Beings

Famous Swami Vivekananda Quotes

“Arise! Arise! A tidal wave is coming! Onward! Men and women, down to the Chandala (Pariah) - all are pure in his eyes. Onward! Onward! There is no time to care for name, or fame, or Mukti, or Bhakti! We shall look to these some other time. Now in this life let us infinitely spread his lofty character, his sublime life, his infinite soul. This is the only work - there is nothing else to do.”

MenLooksSoulCharacterEyeCareNamesPureFameMen And WomenInfiniteWaveSpreadAriseThis LifeHis EyesSublimeLoftyBhaktiPariahsTidal Waves
Book:Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India
Create image

“Love makes no distinction between man and man, between an Aryan and a Mlechchha, between a Brâhmana and a Pariah, nor even between a man and a woman. Love makes the whole universe as one's own home. True progress is slow but sure. Work among those young men who can devote heart and soul to this one duty - the duty of raising the masses of India. Awake them, unite them, and inspire them with this spirit of renunciation; it depends wholly on the young people of India.”

PeopleMenHeartSoulWholeHomeYoungSpiritUniverseProgressInspireDutyDependsMassIndiaYoung ManAwakeDistinctionHeart And SoulRenunciationPariahs
Author:Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“Spirituality brings a class of men who lay exclusive claim to the special powers of the world. The immediate effect of this is a reaction towards materialism, which opens the door to scores of exclusive claims, until the time comes when not only all the spiritual powers of the race, but all its material powers and privileges are centred in the hands of a very few; and these few, standing on the necks of the masses of the people, want to rule them. Then society has to help itself, and materialism comes to the rescue.”

PeopleMenWorldWantHelpingHandsSpiritualSpiritualityRaceClassDoorsSpecialEffectsMaterialsMassStandingClaimsLaysPrivilegeReactionsNecksScoreMaterialismRescueExclusiveSpiritual Power
Book:The Complete Works of the Swami Vivekananda, Comprising All His Lectures, Addresses and Discourses Delivered in Europe, America and India: All His Writings in Prose and Poetry, Together with Translations of Those Written in Bengali and Sanskrit; Reports of His Interviews and His Replies to the Various Addresses of Welcome; His Sayings and Epistles,--private and Public--original and Translated; with an Index; Carefully Revised & Edited
Create image

“What is the idea of God in heaven? Materialism. The Vedantic idea is the infinite principle of God embodied in every one of us. God sitting up on a cloud! Think of the utter blasphemy of it! It is materialism - downright materialism. When babies think this way, it may be all right, but when grown - up men try to teach such things, it is downright disgusting - that is what it is. It is all matter, all body idea, the gross idea, the sense idea. Every bit of it is clay and nothing but clay. Is that religion?”

ThinkingMenWayTryingMayIdeasMatterBodyHeavenBitsPrinciplesTeachBabySittingInfiniteCloudsMaterialismDisgustingGrossClayBlasphemySitting Up
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“There are men who practice Titiksha, and succeed in it. There are men who sleep on the banks of the Ganga in the midsummer sun of India, and in winter float in the waters of the Ganga for a whole day; they do not care. Men sit in the snow of the Himalayas, and do not care to wear any garment. What is heat? What is cold? Let things come and go, what is that to me, I am not the body.”

MenWholeBodyCareWaterSleepPracticeSunColdSucceedIndiaWinterSnowHeatFloatsComes And GoesGarmentsMidsummerHimalayas
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“We must always remember that God is Love. "A fool indeed is he who, living on the banks of the Ganga, seeks to dig a little well for water. A fool indeed is the man who, living near a mine of diamonds, spends his life in searching for beads of glass." God is that mine of diamonds. We are fools indeed to give up God for legends of ghosts or flying hobgoblins. It is a disease, a morbid desire.”

MenGivingWellsLittlesRememberDesireWaterMinesHe ManFoolDiseaseGiving UpGlassesFlyingGhostLegendsDiamondLiving OnGod Is LoveMorbidBeads
Book:Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: Art of living
Create image

“With the Holy Mother as the centre of inspiration, a Math is to be established on the eastern bank of the Ganga. . . . On the other side of the Ganga a big plot of land will be acquired, where unmarried girls or Brahmacharini widows will live; devout married women will also be allowed to stay now and then. Men will have no concern with this Math.”

MenBigsInspirationMotherGirlSidesLandHolyMarriedConcernMathPlotNow And ThenCentreEasternWidowsUnmarriedMarried Women
Author:Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“We are all born idolaters, and idolatry is good, because it is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God-man. The rest are all idolaters. So long as we see this universe before us, with its forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This is a gigantic symbol we are worshipping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater.”

MenLongBodyFormUniverseBornPerfectShapesWorshipSymbolsIdolatryNature Of ManPerfect ManIdol Worship
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“I am not talking about what every one of us means by love. Little namby-pamby love is lovely. Man rails in love with woman, and woman goes to die for man. The chances are that in five minutes John kicks Jane, and Jane kicks John. This is a materialism and no love at all. If John could really love Jane, he would be perfect that moment.”

IfsMenMeanLittlesMomentsWould BeDiesChancePerfectLove IsTalkingFiveMinutesMen And WomenLovelyKicksMaterialismThat MomentFive MinutesJaneChances AreNot TalkingRailNo LoveLovely Man
Author:Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“Man stands in materialism; you and I are materialists. Our talking about God and Spirit is good; but it is simply the vogue in our society to talk thus: we have learnt it parrot-like and repeat it. So we have to take ourselves where we are as materialists, and must take the help of matter and go on slowly until we become real spiritualists, and feel ourselves spirits, understand the spirit, and find that this world which we call the infinite is but a gross external form of that world which is behind.”

MenWorldFeelsRealMatterHelpingFormSpiritBehindsTalkingThis WorldGoes OnInfiniteRepeatsOur SocietyMaterialismGrossVogueParrots
Book:Complete Works
Create image

“Materialism has come to the rescue of India in a certain sense by throwing open the doors of life to everyone, by destroying the exclusive privileges of caste, by opening up to discussion the inestimable treasures which were hidden away in the hands of a very few who have even lost the use of them. Half has been stolen and lost; and the other half which remains is in the hands of men who, like dogs in the manger, do not eat themselves and will not allow others to do so.”

MenHas BeensUseHandsCertainLostHalfDoorsDogIndiaRemainsPrivilegeTreasureOpeningDiscussionMaterialismThrowingDestroyingRescueStolenExclusiveOther HalfOpening UpCastes
Author:Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“Here lies the secret. Says Patanjali, the father of Yoga, "When a man rejects all the superhuman powers, then he attains to the cloud of virtue." He sees God. He becomes God and helps others to become the same. This is all I have to preach. Doctrines have been expounded enough. There are books by the million. Oh, for an ounce of practice!”

MenHas BeensBookEnoughHelpingLyingFatherSecretPracticeMillionsVirtueYogaCloudsHelping OthersDoctrineRejectsSuperhumanSuperhuman Powers
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“There can be no love so long as there is lust- even a speck of it, as it were, in the heart. None but men of great renunciation, none but mighty giants among men, have a right to that Love Divine. If that highest ideal of love is held out to the masses, it will indirectly tend to stimulate its worldly which dominates the heart of man- for, meditating on love to God by thinking of oneself as His wife or beloved, one would very likely be thinking most of the time of one's own wife- the result is too obvious to point out.”

IfsThinkingMenHeartLongLove IsResultsWifeDivineHighestMassIdealsOneselfObviousLustBelovedGiantsLoved OnesWorldlyMeditatingNo LoveRenunciationSpecks
Book:Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation
Create image

“The goal of mankind is knowledge ... Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”

KnowsMenShouldSoulLanguageGoalMankindMinesInfinitePsychologicalInherentStrictInfinite Knowledge
Book:Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India
Create image

“God is the one goal of all our passions and emotions. If you want to be angry, be angry with Him. Chide your Beloved, chide your Friend. Whom else can you safely chide? Mortal man will not patiently put up with your anger; there will be a reaction. If you are angry with me I am sure quickly to react, because I cannot patiently put up with your anger. Say unto the Beloved, "Why do You not come to me; why do You leave me thus alone?" Where is there any enjoyment but in Him? What enjoyment can there be in little clods of earth?”

IfsMenWantLittlesEarthPassionGoalEmotionAngerAngryReactionsMortalsBelovedEnjoymentLeaving Me
Book:What Religion is: In the Words of Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“The devil comes in many guises-anger in the form of justice-passion in the form of duty. When it first comes, the man knows and then he forgets. Just as your pleaders' conscience; at first they know it is all Badmashi (roguery), then it is duty to their clients; at last they get hardened.”

KnowsMenFirstsLastsFormPassionJusticeForgetHe ManDutyDevilConscienceAngerClientsGuiseHardened
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“With everything we do in life we identify ourselves. Here is a man who says harsh words to me. I feel anger coming on me. In a few seconds anger and I are one, and then comes misery. Attach yourselves to the Lord and to nothing else, because everything else is unreal. Attachment to the unreal will bring misery. There is only one Existence that is real, only one Life in which there is neither object nor [subject].”

MenFeelsRealExistenceLordSubjectsObjectsAngerMiseryAttachmentSecondsHarshUnrealHarsh Words
Book:Vivekananda Reader
Create image

“Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-makin g, assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.”

IfsMenHeartMadeIdeasWholeCharacterRunningBrainFiveInformationBuildingAmountLibraryRiotAssimilation
Author:Swami Vivekananda
Create image

“Every successful man must have behind him somewhere tremendous integrity, tremendous sincerity, and that is the cause of his signal success in life. He may not have been perfectly unselfish; yet he was tending towards it. If he had been perfectly unselfish, his would have been as great a success as that of the Buddha or of the Christ. The degree of unselfishness marks the degree of success everywhere.”

IfsMenMayHas BeensCausesChristBehindsSuccessfulIntegrityDegreesMarkSinceritySuccess In LifeSignalsUnselfishUnselfishnessSuccessful Man
Book:Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation
Create image

“The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy, that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. Misery is caused by sin, and by no other cause. What business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry this disease out into the world?”

IfsMenWorldFirstsMayFacesCausesReligiousSinRoomsBecomingTerribleDiseaseMiseryCheerfulGloomyYour RoomClouded
Book:The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Create image