Swami Vivekananda Quotes

man may see a great deal of difference between grass and a little tree, but if you mount very high, the grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same. So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest animal and the highest man are the same.

Who is the seer? The Self of man, the Purusha. What is the scene? The whole of nature beginning with the mind, down to gross matter.

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

The goal of mankind is knowledge. . . . Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man "knows," should, in strict psychological language, be what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what man "learns" is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

The earth is enjoyed by heroes” — this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.

To the Yogi everything is bliss, every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a virtuous man.

whatever you think that you will be.
if you think yourself weak,weak you will be;
if you think yourself strong,you will be

Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.

All condemnation of others really condemns ourselves. Adjust the microcosm which is in your power to do) and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you.

There is only one sin. That is weakness.... The only saint is that soul that never weakens, faces everything, and determines to die game.

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.

The tender plant of spirituality will die if exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideas and ideals. Many people, in the name of what may be called religious liberalism, may be seen feeding their idle curiosity with a continuous succession of different ideals. With them, hearing new things grows into a kind of disease, a sort of religious drink-mania. They want to hear new things just by way of getting a temporary nervous excitement, and when one such exciting influence has had its effect on them, they are ready for another. Religion is with these people a sort of intellectual opium-eating, and there it ends.

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate.
The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are unfurled
catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have
their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of
the wind?....... We make our own destiny.

What do you gain in heaven? You become gods, drink nectar, and get rheumatism. There is less misery there than on earth, but also less truth.

We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth, until we experience it ourselves.