Quotes from Swami Vivekananda

Knowledge itself is the highest reward of knowledge.

The world is neither good nor bad; the world is the world. The

Imagination is the door to inspiration and the basis of all thought.

if you want to help others, your little self must go.

Even the most arrant coward becomes brave when the world praises him. A fool can do heroic deeds when the approbation of society is upon him, but for a man to constantly do good without caring for the approbation of his fellow men is indeed the highest sacrifice man can perform.

There he realized the oneness of the universe and man, that man is a universe in miniature.

The concentrated mind is a lamp that shows us every corner of the soul.

Krishna is the higher Self, or God. He sees through the argument at once. In this case [the motive] is weakness.

am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.

if he does not desire any happiness, if he is free of all [attachment], of all fear, of all anger

As the tortoise can draw in his legs, and if you strike him, not one foot comes out

even so the sage can draw all his sense-organs inside," (Ibid. 58.) and nothing can force them out.

Nothing can shake him, no temptation or anything.

There is a glory in happiness, there is a glory in suffering.

There is no merit in the renunciation of a beggar.

If there were no fanaticism in the world, it would make much more progress than it does now. It is a mistake to think that fanaticism can make for the progress of mankind. On the contrary, it is a retarding element creating hatred and anger, and causing people to fight each other, and making them unsympathetic. We

It is our privilege to be allowed to be charitable, for only so can we grow. The poor man suffers that we may be helped; let the giver kneel down and give thanks, let the receiver stand up and permit.

The human mind is like that monkey, incessantly active by its own nature; then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of the scorpion of jealousy at the success of others, and last of all the demon of pride enters the mind, making it think itself of all importance. How hard to control such a mind!

Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving for perfection.

The orthodox Hindu [the Mimâmsaka] does not believe in gods, the unorthodox believe in them.

If [you think] thought cannot be manufactured, stop eating for twenty days and see how you feel. Begin today and count. ... Even thought is manufactured by food. There is no doubt about it.

We know how often in our lives through laziness and cowardice we give up the battle and try to hypnotise our minds into the belief that we are brave.

first build up your physique. then only you can get control over the mind.

The uncontrolled mind Does not guess that the Atman is present: How can it meditate? Without meditation, where is peace? Without peace, where is happiness? (Bhagavad Gita, II. 62, 63, 65)