Quotes from Swami Vivekananda

Say, "I can do everything ." "Even if poison of a snake is powerless if you can firmly deny it."

You must have an iron will, if you would cross the ocean. You must be strong enough to pierce mountains.

He who always thinks himself as weak will never become strong, but he who knows himself to be a lion, rushes out from the worlds meshes, as a lion from its cage.

Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.

Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage.

Be strong, get beyond all superstitions, and be free.

There is no help for you, outside yourself; You are the creator of the universe.

Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.

Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, and fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.

There is one thing to be remembered: that the assertion 'I am God' cannot be made with regard to the sense-world.

Proclaim the glory of the Atman with the roar of a lion, and impart fearlessness unto all beings by saying, 'Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached'!

Be free; hope for nothing from anyone. I am sure if you look back upon your lives you will find that you were always vainly trying to get help from others which never came.

. . . If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. We must rouse India and the whole world. No cowardice.

God is present in every Jiva; there is no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva serves God indeed.

Be moral. Be brave. Be a heart-whole man, strictly moral, brave unto desperation. Don't bother your head with religious theories. Cowards only sin, brave men never, no, not even in mind.

"Face the brutes." That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.

Oh, if only you knew yourselves! You are souls; you are Gods. If ever I feel like blaspheming, it is when I call you man.

So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.

If you are pure, if you are strong, you, one man are equal to the whole world.

As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe.

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will.

As soon as you know the voice and understand what it is, the whole scene changes. The same world which was the ghastly battlefield of maya is now changed into something good and beautiful.

Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion.

Dependence is misery. Independence is happiness.