Quotes from Swami Vivekananda

Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly; it is a continuous friction otherwise.

Strength is Life, Weakness is Death.

That is the test of everything. Renounce everything. It is the creative faculty that brings us into all this entanglement.

Where one sees another, one hears another so long as there are two, there must be fear, and fear is the mother of all [misery].

Where none sees another, where it is all One, there is none to be miserable, none to be unhappy (note 48).

He has seen the glory of the Self

Then the gods become no gods; death becomes no death; life becomes no life.

Such a man is the same whether his work succeeds or fails.

Work for work's sake. Worship for worship's sake. Do good because it is good to do good. Ask no more.

To work we have the right, but not to the fruits thereof:" Leave the fruits alone. Why

Freedom is never to 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.

The mind of the man who receives gifts is acted on by the mind of the giver, so the receiver is likely to become degenerated. Receiving gifts is prone to destroy the independence of the mind, and make us slavish. Therefore, receive no gifts.

The powers of the mind are like rays of light dissipated; when they are concentrated, they illumine.

All the weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or country have only one way of loving their own ideal, i.e. by hating every other ideal.

Then you will become a man of firm will (note 19).

freedom is the first condition of growth. What you do not make free, will never grow.

All unhappiness is caused by our not having mastery over the body... We are all putting the cart before the horse... Take the system of work, for instance. We are trying to do good by ... comforting the poor. We do not get to the cause which created the misery. It is like taking a bucket to empty out the ocean, and more water comes all the time. The Yogi sees that this is nonsense. He says that the way out of misery is to know the cause of misery first...

A thousand years a city, and a thousand years a forest.

Our knowledge is within the network of Mâyâ (unreality), and beyond that is freedom. Within the network there is slavery, it is all under law; beyond that there is no law. So far as the universe is concerned, existence is ruled by law, and beyond that is freedom.

Never turn back to see the result of what you have done. Give all to the Lord and go on, and think not of it.

Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power.

Rituals are the kindergarten of religion. They are absolutely necessary for the world as it is now; only we shall have to give people newer and fresh rituals. A party of thinkers must undertake to do this. Old rituals must be rejected and new ones substituted.

If I am unhappy, it has been of my own making, and that very thing shows that I can be happy if I will.

So fulfil your desire for power and everything else, and after you have fulfilled the desire, will come the time when you will know that they are all very little things; but until you have fulfilled this desire, until you have passed through that activity, it is impossible for you to come to the state of calmness, serenity, and self-surrender.