More Quotes By Viveka

He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith in God. This is the secret of greatness. If you have faith in the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods, and in all the gods which foreigners have introduced into your midst, and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourself and stand upon that faith and be strong.
~ Swami Vivekananda

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.
~ Swami Vivekananda

This is a great fact: strength is life; weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery, weakness is death.
~ Swami Vivekananda

The world requires a few hundred bold men and women. Practice that boldness which dared know the Truth, which dares show the Truth in life, which does not quake before death, nay, welcomes death, makes a man know that he is the Spirit, that in the whole universe, nothing can kill him. Then you will be free.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood. Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening and paralysing ones.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life-these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were not for struggles. Where would be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. I never heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow-never a man. So never mind these failures, these little backslidings; hold the ideal a thousand times; and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more.
~ Swami Vivekananda

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes, and cry that it is dark. Know that there is no darkness around us. Take the hands away and there is the light which was from the beginning. Darkness never existed, weakness never existed. We who are fools cry that we are impure.
~ Swami Vivekananda

The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Throughout the history of mankind if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves. Born of the consciousness that they are to be great, they became great.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Never say, ‘no’; never say, ‘I cannot’, for you are infinite. Even time and space are as nothing compared with your nature. You can do anything and everything. You are almighty.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Stand up and fight! Not one step back, that is the idea. Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the spheres! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. You are infinite, deathless, birth less. Because you are infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight!
~ Swami Vivekananda

It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.
~ Swami Vivekananda

We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.
~ Swami Vivekananda

The world is a great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Men in general lay all the blame of life on their fellow men, or, failing that, on god, or they conjure up a ghost, and say it is fate. Where is fate, and who is fate? We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none else has the praise. 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 it. Is that the fault of the wind?
~ Swami Vivekananda

Say, ‘This misery that I am suffering is of my own doing, and that very thing proves that it will have to be undone by me alone.’ That which I created, I can demolish; that which is created by someone else, I shall never be able to destroy. Therefore, stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creators of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is within ourselves.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Every thought that we think, every deed that we do, after a certain time becomes fine, goes into the seed form, so to speak, and lives in the fine body in a potential form, and after a time, it emerges again and bears its results. These results condition the life of man. Thus he moulds his own life. Man is not bound by any other laws excepting those which he makes for himself.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all — love.
~ Swami Vivekananda

We must overcome difficulty by constant practice. We must learn that nothing can happen to us unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Take up an idea, devote yourself to that it, and struggle on it on patience. And the sun will rise for you.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Do not recognize wickedness in others. Wickedness is ignorance, weakness. What is the good of telling people they are weak? Criticism and destruction are of no avail. We must give them a little higher; tell them of their own glorious nature, their birthright.
~ Swami Vivekananda

It is fear alone that is death. You have to go beyond all fear. So from this day, be fearless. Off at once, to lay down your life for your own liberation and for the good of others. What good is it carrying a load of bones and flesh!
~ Swami Vivekananda

Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it.
~ Swami Vivekananda

This is the gist of all worship — to be pure and to do good to others. he who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary.
~ Swami Vivekananda

This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
~ Swami Vivekananda

I do not believe in a religion or God which cannot wipe the widow’s tears or bring piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth.
~ Swami Vivekananda

None will be able to resist truth and love and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish even unto death? And loving? Then fear not, not even death. Onward my lads! The whole world requires light. It is expectant! Now the time has come. Have faith that you are all, my brave lads, born to do great things! Let not the barks of puppies frighten you - no, not even the thunderbolts of heaven — but stand up and work.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Even the least work done for others awakens the power within. Even thinking the least amount good for others gradually instills into the heart, the strength of a lion. Get up, and put your shoulders to the wheel. How long is this life for? As you have come into the world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference between you and the trees and stones?
~ Swami Vivekananda

Truth, purity and unselfishness — wherever these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole world in opposition.
~ Swami Vivekananda

There is a cloud shedding its rain on all fields alike. But it is only the field that is well cultivated, which gets the advantage of shower; another field, which has not been tilled or taken care of cannot get that advantage. It is not the fault of the cloud. The mercy of God is eternal and unchangeable; it is we that make the differentiation.
~ Swami Vivekananda