Quotes from Swami Vivekananda

Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not because it is your national belief, because you have been made to believe it from your childhood; but reason it all out, and after you have analysed it, then, if you find that it will do good to one and all, believe it, live up to it, and help others to live up to it.

the man who is pure, and who dares, does all things.

What a man 'learns' is really what he 'discovers,' by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

He does not need anything. He does not want anything.

the appearances of happiness or unhappiness of the soul are but reflections.

If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the man without an ideal makes fifty thousand.

The universe itself can never be the limit of our satisfaction. That is why the miser gathers more and more money, that is why the robber robs, the sinner sins, that is why you are learning philosophy. All have one purpose. There is no other purpose in life, save to reach this freedom. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving for perfection. Every being must attain to it.

Each is great in his own place, but the duty of one is not the duty of the other.

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. Karma

If you want the reward, you must also have the punishment; the only way to get out of the punishment is to give up the reward.

Suppose there is a wave in the ocean. The wave is distinct from the ocean only in its form and name, and this form and this name cannot have any separate existence from the wave; they exist only with wave. The wave may subside but the same amount of water remains, even if the name and form that were on the wave vanish for ever. So this Maya is what makes the difference between me and you , between all animals and man, between gods and men.

but I am prepared to go any distance to see the face of that man who can really make a distinction between the sin and the sinner. It is easy to say so.

India is at one with the most puritan faiths of the world in her declaration that progress is from seen to unseen, from the many to the One, from the low to the high, from the form to the formless, and never in the reverse direction. She differs only in having a word of sympathy

Prana is Spandana or vibration. When all this universe shall have resolved back into its primal state, what becomes of this infinite force? Do they think that it becomes extinct? Of course, not. If it became extinct, what would be the cause of the next wave, because the motion is going in wave forms, rising, falling, rising again, falling again?

Sharp as the blade of a razor, long and difficult and hard to cross, is the way to freedom. The sages have declared this again and again. Yet do not let these weaknesses and failures bind you. The Upanishads have declared, "Arise ! Awake ! and stop not until the goal is reached.

That must have been the character of the man.

All power is within you; you can do anything and everything.

The causes being known, the knowledge of the effects is sure to follow.

The flowers that we see all around us are beautiful, beautiful is the rising of the morning sun, beautiful are the variegated hues of nature. The whole universe is beautiful, and man has been enjoying it since his appearance on earth. Sublime and awe-inspiring are the mountains; the gigantic rushing rivers rolling towards the sea, the trackless deserts, the infinite ocean, the starry heavens — all these are awe-inspiring, sublime, and beautiful indeed.

hypnotise our minds into the belief that we are brave.

India is at one with the most puritan faiths of the world in her declaration that progress is from seen to unseen, from the many to the One, from the low to the high, from the form to the formless, and never in the reverse direction.

Concentration of the powers of the mind is our only instrument to help us see God.

The Yogi believes in psychic control and the conquest of internal nature. "How

stick to truth and we shall succeed, may be slowly, but surely.