Swami Vivekananda, born as Narendranath Datta on 12th January 1863, is one of the great Indian spiritual leaders of all time, famous for his groundbreaking speech to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions introducing Hindu Vedanta and Yoga to the world.
Influenced by his religious guru Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and teachings that all living beings are an embodiment of the divine self; and therefore service to God could be rendered by service to humankind, he lived through them.
Swami Vivekananda – the bliss of discerning wisdom was an patriotic saint who dedicated his life for the betterment of society, upliftment of religious tolerance and humanity as a whole through his spiritual teachings and practices.
For youth, his teachings and ideas serve as a beacon of direction. Read his great words and teachings compiled together for more bliss, motivation and accomplishments.
Here is a collection of 153 Motivational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda to uplift your thoughts and accomplish your goals.
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Motivational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
1.
“Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.”
― Swami Vivekananda
2.
“To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will.”
― Swami Vivekananda
3.
“Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.”
― Swami Vivekananda
4.
“Work on with the intrepidity of a lion but at the same time with the tenderness of a flower.”
― Swami Vivekananda
5.
“The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength in your mind and words.”
― Swami Vivekananda
6.
“Learn to recognise the mother in Evil, Terror, Sorrow, Denial, as well as in Sweetness and in Joy.”
― Swami Vivekananda
7.
“We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.”
― Swami Vivekananda
8.
“Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work.”
― Swami Vivekananda
9.
“Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.”
― Swami Vivekananda
10.
“Go on saying, ‘I am free.’ Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, ‘I am bound.’ Dehypnotize the whole thing.”
― Swami Vivekananda
11.
“It is the coward and the fool who says, This is my fate – so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says, I will make my own fate.”
― Swami Vivekananda
12.
“Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were not for struggles.”
― Swami Vivekananda
13.
“Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourself. Therefore make your own future.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Education Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
14.
“First, believe in the world–that there is meaning behind everything.”
― Swami Vivekananda
15.
“This earth is higher than all the heavens; this is the greatest school in the universe.”
― Swami Vivekananda
16.
“First get rid of the delusion ‘I am the body,’ then only will we want real knowledge.”
― Swami Vivekananda
17.
“Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to know.”
― Swami Vivekananda
18.
“The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine.”
― Swami Vivekananda
19.
“All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.”
― Swami Vivekananda
20.
“Education is the manifestation of perfection present already in man. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.”
― Swami Vivekananda
21.
“The goal of mankind is knowledge. … Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside.”
― Swami Vivekananda
22.
“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”
― Swami Vivekananda
23.
“If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.”
― Swami Vivekananda
24.
“Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their taste.”
― Swami Vivekananda
25.
“If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage. If you know that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge, knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all nature.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Positive Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
26.
“Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead!”
― Swami Vivekananda
27.
“This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.”
― Swami Vivekananda
28.
“Whenever we attain a higher vision, the lower vision disappears of itself.”
― Swami Vivekananda
29.
“The past was great no doubt, but I sincerely believe that the future will be more glorious still.”
― Swami Vivekananda
30.
“Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet.”
― Swami Vivekananda
31.
“A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.”
― Swami Vivekananda
32.
“All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.”
― Swami Vivekananda
33.
“Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already. You and I, and all beings, are trying to manifest that infinity.”
― Swami Vivekananda
34.
“It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties.”
― Swami Vivekananda
35.
“The will is not free–it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect–but there is something behind the will which is free.”
― Swami Vivekananda
36.
“Impurity is a mere superimposition under which your real nature has become hidden. But the real you is already perfect, already strong.”
― Swami Vivekananda
37.
“All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody’s property; no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls.”
― Swami Vivekananda
38.
“Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.”
― Swami Vivekananda
39.
“Blows are what awaken us and help to break the dream. They show us the insufficiency of this world and make us long to escape, to have freedom.”
― Swami Vivekananda
40.
“Each work has to pass through these stages–ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.”
― Swami Vivekananda
41.
“The power is with the silent ones, who only live and love and then withdraw their personality. They never say ‘me’ and ‘mine’; they are only blessed in being instruments.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Inspirational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
42.
“Be a hero. Always say, ‘I have no fear.’ Tell this to everyone–‘Have no fear’.”
― Swami Vivekananda
43.
“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.”
― Swami Vivekananda
44.
“Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat.”
― Swami Vivekananda
45.
“I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything he really deserves.”
― Swami Vivekananda
46.
“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”
― Swami Vivekananda
47.
“Both the forces of good and evil will keep the universe alive for us, until we awake from our dreams and give up this building of mud pies.”
― Swami Vivekananda
48.
“The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of strength that is already within them.”
― Swami Vivekananda
49.
“It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly.”
― Swami Vivekananda
50.
“We must overcome difficulty by constant practice. We must learn that nothing can happen to us unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.”
― Swami Vivekananda
51.
“They know that the soul of all religions is the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does not speak in the same tongue.”
― Swami Vivekananda
52.
“If a piece of burning charcoal be placed on a man’s head, see how he struggles to throw it off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of those who really understand that they are slaves of nature.”
― Swami Vivekananda
53.
“Strength is the sign of vigor, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health, and the sign of everything that is good. As long as the body lives, there must be strength in the body, strength in the mind, strength in the hand.”
― Swami Vivekananda
54.
“A tremendous stream is flowing toward the ocean, carrying us all along with it; and though like straws and scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about, in the long run we are sure to join the Ocean of Life and Bliss.”
― Swami Vivekananda
55.
“‘I am the thread that runs through all these pearls,’ and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runs through all of them; most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Thought Provoking Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
56.
“Desire, ignorance, and inequality–this is the trinity of bondage.”
― Swami Vivekananda
57.
“Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion.”
― Swami Vivekananda
58.
“Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.”
― Swami Vivekananda
59.
“Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die.”
― Swami Vivekananda
60.
“If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.”
― Swami Vivekananda
61.
“Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.”
― Swami Vivekananda
62.
“Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let us calmly go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary fretting and fuming.”
― Swami Vivekananda
63.
“Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood. Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening and paralysing ones.”
― Swami Vivekananda
64.
“Have you got the will to surmount mountain-high obstructions? If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right?”
― Swami Vivekananda
65.
“Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours, stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you every felt you wanted to do that, you have felt God.”
― Swami Vivekananda
66.
“Women will work out their destinies – much better, too, than men can ever do for them. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny of women.”
― Swami Vivekananda
67.
“Delusion will vanish as the light becomes more and more effulgent, load after load of ignorance will vanish, and then will come a time when all else has disappeared and the sun alone shines.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Persuasive Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
68.
“Superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.”
― Swami Vivekananda
69.
“The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence.”
― Swami Vivekananda
70.
“Please everyone without becoming a hypocrite or a coward.”
― Swami Vivekananda
71.
“Everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment: universality.”
― Swami Vivekananda
72.
“Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and, above all, love.”
― Swami Vivekananda
73.
“Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self (atman), the God of the universe.”
― Swami Vivekananda
74.
“Religion as a science, as a study, is the greatest and healthiest exercise that the human mind can have.”
― Swami Vivekananda
75.
“Every action that helps us manifest our divine nature more and more is good; every action that retards it is evil.”
― Swami Vivekananda
76.
“Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit.”
― Swami Vivekananda
77.
“It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.”
― Swami Vivekananda
78.
“We must approach religion with reverence and with love, and our heart will stand up and say, this is truth, and this is untruth.”
― Swami Vivekananda
79.
“Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. … Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.”
― Swami Vivekananda
80.
“The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration.”
― Swami Vivekananda
81.
“Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.”
― Swami Vivekananda
82.
“Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.”
― Swami Vivekananda
83.
“We must have friendship for all; we must be merciful toward those that are in misery; when people are happy, we ought to be happy; and to the wicked we must be indifferent. These attitudes will make the mind peaceful.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Influential Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
84.
“Every step I take in light is mine forever.”
― Swami Vivekananda
85.
“‘Comfort’ is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being ‘comfortable’.”
― Swami Vivekananda
86.
“Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.”
― Swami Vivekananda
87.
“Give me few men and women who are pure and selfless and I shall shake the world.”
― Swami Vivekananda
88.
“Don’t look back–forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience–then alone can great deeds be accomplished.”
― Swami Vivekananda
89.
“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?”
― Swami Vivekananda
90.
“Look upon every man, woman, and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege.”
― Swami Vivekananda
91.
“Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.”
― Swami Vivekananda
92.
“Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin – to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”
― Swami Vivekananda
93.
“Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.”
― Swami Vivekananda
94.
“I fervently wish no misery ever came near anyone; yet it is that alone that gives us an insight into the depths of our lives, does it not? In our moments of anguish, gates barred forever seem to open and let in many a flood of light.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Life Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
95.
“A perfect life is a contradiction in terms.”
― Swami Vivekananda
96.
“Strength is Life, Weakness is Death. Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death.”
― Swami Vivekananda
97.
“This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger.”
― Swami Vivekananda
98.
“It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.”
― Swami Vivekananda
99.
“The best guide in life is strength. In religion, as in all other matters, discard everything that weakens you, have nothing to do with it.”
― Swami Vivekananda
100.
“When we really begin to live in the world, then we understand what is meant by brotherhood or mankind, and not before.”
― Swami Vivekananda
101.
“This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.”
― Swami Vivekananda
102.
“What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like a thunderbolt.”
― Swami Vivekananda
103.
“Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.”
― Swami Vivekananda
104.
“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.”
― Swami Vivekananda
105.
“If you want to have life, you have to die every moment for it. Life and death are only different expressions of the same thing looked at from different standpoints; they are the falling and the rising of the same wave, and the two form one whole.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Faith and Religion Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
106.
“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”
― Swami Vivekananda
107.
“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!”
― Swami Vivekananda
108.
“Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God, this is the secret of greatness.”
― Swami Vivekananda
109.
“To believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul. Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.”
― Swami Vivekananda
110.
“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.”
― Swami Vivekananda
111.
“All who have actually attained any real religious experience never wrangle over the form in which the different religions are expressed.”
― Swami Vivekananda
112.
“We must be bright and cheerful. Long faces do not make religion. Religion should be the most joyful thing in the world, because it is the best.”
― Swami Vivekananda
113.
“Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. Those who have no faith in themselves can never have faith in God.”
― Swami Vivekananda
114.
“We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.”
― Swami Vivekananda
115.
“The unselfish man says, ‘I will be last, I do not care to go to heaven, I will even go to hell if by doing so I can help my brothers.’ This unselfishness is the test of religion.”
― Swami Vivekananda
116.
“Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions and monstrosities.”
― Swami Vivekananda
117.
“As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid?”
― Swami Vivekananda
118.
“It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony, in the pure and sincere love in the heart. Unless a man is pure in body and mind, his coming into a temple and worshipping Shiva is useless.”
― Swami Vivekananda
God Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
119.
“The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings.”
― Swami Vivekananda
120.
“One who leans on others cannot serve the God of Truth.”
― Swami Vivekananda
121.
“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?”
― Swami Vivekananda
122.
“The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.”
― Swami Vivekananda
123.
“Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world.”
― Swami Vivekananda
124.
“As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe.”
― Swami Vivekananda
125.
“There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things.”
― Swami Vivekananda
126.
“He is present in every being! These are all in manifold forms of him. There is no other God to seek for! He alone is worshipping God, who serves all beings!”
― Swami Vivekananda
127.
“All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.”
― Swami Vivekananda
128.
“God is very merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for spiritual realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come.”
― Swami Vivekananda
129.
“God is self-evident, impersonal, omniscient, the Knower and the Master of nature, the Lord of all. He is behind all worship and it is being done according to Him, whether we know it or not.”
― Swami Vivekananda
130.
“No authority can save us, no beliefs. If there is a God, all can find Him. No one needs to be told it is warm; all can discover it for themselves. So it should be with God. He should be a fact in the consciousness of every person.”
― Swami Vivekananda
131.
“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Wise Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
132.
“That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.”
― Swami Vivekananda
133.
“The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal.”
― Swami Vivekananda
134.
“The whole universe is one. There is only one Self in the universe, only One Existence.”
― Swami Vivekananda
135.
“If I do an evil action, I must suffer for it; there is no power in this universe to stop or stay it.”
― Swami Vivekananda
136.
“The Soul is not composed of any materials. It is unity indivisible. Therefore it must be indestructible.”
― Swami Vivekananda
137.
“Our supreme duty is to advance toward freedom–physical, mental, and spiritual–and help others to do so.”
― Swami Vivekananda
138.
“Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be unattached.”
― Swami Vivekananda
139.
“So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire.”
― Swami Vivekananda
140.
“However we may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.”
― Swami Vivekananda
141.
“Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.”
― Swami Vivekananda
142.
“The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe – the body – is the soul.”
― Swami Vivekananda
143.
“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free.”
― Swami Vivekananda
144.
“Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. If we can bring ourselves down by our karma, surely it is in our power to raise ourselves by our own karma.”
― Swami Vivekananda
145.
“If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word ‘fearlessness’.”
― Swami Vivekananda
146.
“The more you think of yourself as shining immortal spirit, the more eager you will be to be absolutely free of matter, body, and senses. This is the intense desire to be free.”
― Swami Vivekananda
147.
“Stand upon the Self, only then can we truly love the world. Take a very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.”
― Swami Vivekananda
148.
“If there is dirt and dust on a mirror, we cannot see our image. So ignorance and wickedness are the dirt and dust that are on the mirror of our hearts. Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of ourselves first.”
― Swami Vivekananda
149.
“The human soul has sojourned in lower and higher forms, migrating from one to another according to the samskaras or impressions, but it is only in the highest form as a human being that it attains to freedom.”
― Swami Vivekananda
150.
“The spirit is the cause of all our thoughts and body-action, and everything, but it is untouched by good or evil, pleasure or pain, heat or cold, and all the dualism of nature, although it lends its light to everything.”
― Swami Vivekananda
151.
“Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power. It is not in the brain but in the heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge, power, and activity, has its seat.”
― Swami Vivekananda
152.
“There is to be found in every religion the manifestation of the struggle toward freedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unselfishness, which means getting rid of the idea that human beings are the same as this little body.”
― Swami Vivekananda
153.
“Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The man Vivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda is never born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda, the great, patriotic saint and Hindu Guru, attained Mahasamadhi on July 4, 1902. Even after his departure from this materialistic world, his vision is followed with wide appreciation all around the globe.
Every year, the 12th January is celebrated as National Youth Day in India to mark his birthday. Hope these motivational quotes by Swami Vivekananda will significantly and positively influence your lifestyle.
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