Quotes from Swami Vivekananda

If you project hatred and jealousy, they will rebound on you with compound interest. No power can avert them; when once you have put them in motion, you will have to bear them. Remembering this will prevent you from doing wicked things.

so even though all the senses bring in sensations from nature, the ocean-like heart of the sage knows no disturbance, knows no fear

The sage is not sorry for those that are living nor for those that die" (note 4). [Krishna says:]

Karma means law, and it applies everywhere. Everything is bound by Karma.

Do not criticise others, for all doctrines and all dogmas are good; but show them by your lives that religion is no matter of books and beliefs, but of spiritual realisation.

There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause, because people never went to the fountain-head; they were content only to give a mental assent to the customs of their forefathers, and wanted others to do the same.

We have always heard it preached, "Love one another". What for? That doctrine was peached, but the explanation is here. Why should I love every one? Because they and I are one. Why should I love my brother? Because he and I are one. There is this oneness; this solidarity of the whole universe. From the lowest worm that crawls under our feet to the highest beings that ever lived – all have various bodies, but are the one Soul.

Man is miserable this moment, happy the next.

As such he cannot experience the nature of the soul. ...

When this Sushumna current opens, and begins to rise, we get beyond the senses, our minds become supersensuous, superconscious -- we get beyond even the intellect

All weakness, all bondage is imagination.

There is salvation only for the brave.

great difference between the priests and the Upanishads. The Upanishads say, renounce.

Even if you have knowledge, do not disturb the childlike faith of the ignorant. On the other hand, go down to their level and gradually bring them up (note 30). That is a very powerful idea, and it has become the ideal in India. That is why you can see a great philosopher going into a temple and worshipping images. It is not hypocrisy.

When he has become perfectly satisfied, he has no more cravings

Only what is done as duty for duty's sake ... can scatter the bondage of Karma

Let us not be caught this time. So many times Maya has caught us, so many times have we exchanged our freedom for sugar dolls which melted when the water touched them. Don't be deceived. Maya is a great cheat. Get out. Do not let her catch you this time. Do not sell your priceless heritage for such delusions. Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached.

and has found that the world, and the gods, and heaven are ... within his own Self.

This is the sage who always works for work's sake without caring for the results.

Thus he goes beyond the pain of birth and death. Thus he becomes free

Then he sees that this attachment is all delusion.

The whole universe is only the self with variations, one tune made bearable by variations. Sometimes there are discords, but they only make the subsequent harmony more perfect.

If you really want to judge of the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.

If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organised religions. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one's individual development.