1001Philosophers

Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Mind

Swami Vivekananda treated the mind as the decisive instrument of human life, and the quotes gathered here present his characteristically energetic psychology. We are what our thoughts have made us, he taught, and he urged his hearers to take up a single idea, make it their life, and pursue it with the whole force of the will. Vivekananda regarded fear as the root of every weakness and the one real sin the belief that one is weak; the powers needed to overcome any obstacle, he insisted, are already latent within. Drawn from his lectures on yoga and from Pearls of Wisdom, these passages describe a mind to be strengthened, concentrated, and freed from self-imposed limitation, for, in his view, nothing is impossible to the soul that recognises its own divinity.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Swami Vivekananda:

    “We are what our thoughts have made us.”

  • “You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”

    Lectures from Colombo to Almora

  • Attributed to Swami Vivekananda:

    “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.”

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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 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

More from Swami Vivekananda

Other philosophers on Mind

See the full collection of philosopher quotes on Mind →