Swami Vivekananda Quotes
Narendranath Datta, known as Swami Vivekananda, was an Indian Hindu monk and the principal disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. His address at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893 introduced Vedanta and yoga to a wide Western audience and made him an instant celebrity. The quotes below are attributed to Swami Vivekananda, organized by topic.
Browse Swami Vivekananda by topic
- Swami Vivekananda on God
- Swami Vivekananda on Knowledge
- Swami Vivekananda on Life
- Swami Vivekananda on Mind
- Swami Vivekananda on Nature
- Swami Vivekananda on Time
- Swami Vivekananda on Truth
- Swami Vivekananda on Freedom
- Swami Vivekananda on Virtue
- Swami Vivekananda on Death
- Swami Vivekananda on Happiness
- Swami Vivekananda on Politics
Swami Vivekananda on Death
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“India is immortal if she persists in her search for God . But if she goes in for politics and social conflict, she will die.”
A few hours before his death, as quoted in Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture , Volume 14 (1963), p. 469 -
“Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat.”
Call to the Nation -
“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?”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Freedom
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“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.”
Raja Yoga -
“Go on saying, “I am free.” Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, “I am bound.” Dehypnotize the whole thing.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“We want to know in order to make ourselves free. That is our life: one universal cry for freedom.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on God
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“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”
Lectures from Colombo to Almora -
“The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings. They are His multiple forms. There is no other God to seek. . . . It is a man-making religion that we want. . . . Give up these weakening mysticisms, and be strong. . . . For the next fifty years. ... let all other gods disappear from our minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race, everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet, everywhere His ears; He covers everything. . . . The first of all worships is the worship of those all around us. ... He alone serves God who serves all other beings.”
Quoted from Will Durant , Our Oriental Heritage. -
“To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean ”, says the persevering soul ; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy , that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.”
Vedânta philosophy : Lectures by the Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâm -
“As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“What do you gain in heaven? You become gods, drink nectar, and get rheumatism. There is less misery there than on earth, but also less truth.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“Buddha is the only prophet who said, I do not care to know your various theories about God. What is the use of discussing all the subtle doctrines about the soul ? Do good and be good .”
Call to the Nation -
“Education is the manifestation of perfection present already in man. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Happiness
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“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“Learn to recognise the mother in Evil , Terror , Sorrow , Denial, as well as in Sweetness and in Joy .”
Address to his English disciples, as quoted in The life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel , 5th edition (1960) by Romain Rolland , p. 53
Swami Vivekananda on Justice
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“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?”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Knowledge
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“The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings. They are His multiple forms. There is no other God to seek. . . . It is a man-making religion that we want. . . . Give up these weakening mysticisms, and be strong. . . . For the next fifty years. ... let all other gods disappear from our minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race, everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet, ever”
Quoted from Will Durant , Our Oriental Heritage. -
“And may I ask you, Europeans, what country you have ever raised to better conditions? Wherever you have found weaker races, you have exterminated them by the roots, as it were. You have settled on their lands and they are gone forever. What is the history of your America, your Australia and New Zealand, your Pacific Islands and South Africa? Where are those aboriginal races there today? They are a”
Swami Vivekananda Quoted in Talageri, S. (2000). The Rigveda: A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. -
“Vedânta philosophy : Lectures by the Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâm”
To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean ”, says the persevering soul ; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy , that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal. -
“Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâ”
A perfect life is a contradiction in terms. -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind ; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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?”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Life
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“And may I ask you, Europeans, what country you have ever raised to better conditions? Wherever you have found weaker races, you have exterminated them by the roots, as it were. You have settled on their lands and they are gone forever. What is the history of your America, your Australia and New Zealand, your Pacific Islands and South Africa? Where are those aboriginal races there today? They are all exterminated, you have killed them outright, as if they were wild beasts. It is only where you have not the power to do so, and there only, that other nations are still alive.”
Swami Vivekananda Quoted in Talageri, S. (2000). The Rigveda: A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. -
“A perfect life is a contradiction in terms.”
Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâ -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Love
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“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“We must approach religion with reverence and with love, and our heart will stand up and say, this is truth, and this is untruth.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Mind
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Attributed to Swami Vivekananda:
“We are what our thoughts have made us.”
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Attributed to Swami Vivekananda:
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.”
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“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Nature
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“If I do an evil action, I must suffer for it; there is no power in this universe to stop or stay it.”
Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâ
Swami Vivekananda on Time
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“Vivekananda, The Future of India, Complete works vol 3.”
This is the ancient land where wisdom made its home before it went into any other country, the same India whose influx of spirituality is represented, as it were, on the material plane, by rolling rivers like oceans, where the eternal Himalayas, rising tier above tier with their snowcaps, look as it were into the very mysteries of heaven. Here is the same India whose soil has been trodden by the f
Swami Vivekananda on Truth
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“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature.”
Karma Yoga -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are ...but unless you realize the Truth, there is no freedom.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted, cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky.”
Pearls of Wisdom -
“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.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Swami Vivekananda on Virtue
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“Arise, awake, and stop not until the goal is reached.”
Public Addresses -
“It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Things actually not said by Swami Vivekananda
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Swami Vivekananda but are in fact from someone else. Did Swami Vivekananda say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Swami Vivekananda say this? No.
“Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.”
Attributed in Swami Vivekananda: The Charm of His Personality and Message by Swami Atmashraddhananda [1] (Disputed.)