This document contains over 100 quotes attributed to Swami Vivekananda. Some of the key ideas expressed in the quotes include: - Focus on developing strength of character through perseverance and overcoming weaknesses. - Serve others selflessly and see the divine in all people. - Have faith in yourself and your ability to accomplish great things through willpower and dedication to spiritual ideals. - Approach all religions and cultures with an open mind, seeking to understand different perspectives while maintaining your own identity. - Face challenges directly and do not make excuses or blame external factors for problems or limitations. Look within yourself for answers.

1. Quotes
See for the highest, aim at that highest, and you shall reach the highest.
"Comfort" is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being "comfortable".
"The earth is enjoyed by heroes"-this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, "I have no fear".
"Face the brutes." That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly.
Things are not bettered, but we are bettered, by making changes in them.
The only test of good things is that they make us strong.
Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all, love.
Strength is in goodness, in purity.
Practical patriotism means not a mere sentiment or even emotion of love of the motherland but a passion to
serve our fellow-countrymen.
Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are
the creator of your own destiny.
If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right?
Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached.
To be good and to do good--that is the whole of religion.
Great undertakings are always fraught with many obstacles.
It is better to wear out than rust out.
Hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more.
The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves.
We must keep our dignity before others. Unless we do that, we expose ourselves to insult.
Man is not travelling from error to truth, but climbing up from truth to truth, from truth that is lower to truth that
is higher.
When death is certain, it is best to sacrifice oneself for a good cause.
Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.
Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.
Don't go down till you are knocked down.
Everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment: universality.
Experience is the only teacher we have.
Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and
ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.
Give love, give help, give service, give any little thing you can, but keep out barter.
If a person who lives in God becomes miserable, what is the use of living in God? What is the use of such a
God? Throw such a God overboard into the Pacific Ocean. We do not want such a God!
If superstition enters, the brain is gone.
If the mind is intensely eager, everything can be accomplished-mountains can be crumbled into atoms.

2. If you really want the good of others, the whole universe may stand against you and cannot hurt you.
Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else.
May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that
exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls--and, above all, my God the wicked, my God the
miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.
Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be
unattached.
Out of purity and silence comes the word of power.
Please everyone without becoming a hypocrite or a coward.
So long as 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.
Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are
the creator of your own destiny.
Strength is life, weakness is death.
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life-think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain,
muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is
the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking
machines.
Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not.
The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful.
The great virtues a person has are his or her especially. But their errors are the common weakness of
humanity and should never be counted in estimating a person's character.
The greatest sin is to think that you are weak.
The infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
The power is with the silent ones, who only live and love and then withdraw their personality.
The wind of divine grace is always blowing. You just need to spread your sail.
The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock.
There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the universe.
There is only one sin and it is: weakness.
Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.
To believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul.
Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die.
Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character
of a great person.
We can never lose what is really ours.
We get misery in return for our love; not from the fact that we love, but from the fact that we want love in
return.
We must approach religion with reverence and with love.

3. We must be bright and cheerful. Long faces do not make religion.
Whatever is weak, avoid! It is death. If it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it!
Whatever you believe, that you will be.
When once you consider an action, do not let anything dissuade you. Consult your heart, not others, and
then follow its dictates.
Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.
Women will work out their destinies-much better, too, than men can ever do for them.
You are the God of this universe.
You cannot help anyone, you can only serve
I belong as much to India as to the world, no humbug about that. I have helped you all I could. You must
now help yourselves. What country has any special claim on me?
A nation is not to be judged by its weaklings called the wicked, as they are only the weeds which lag behind,
but by the good, the noble, and the pure, who indicate the national life current flowing clear and vigorous.
We must travel, we must go to foreign parts. We must see how the engine of society works in other
countries, and keep free and open communication with what is going on in the minds of other nations, if we
really want to be a nation again.
I am thoroughly convinced that no individual or nation can live by holding itself apart from the community of
others, and whenever such an attempt has been made under the false ideas of greatness, policy, or
holiness -- the result has always been disastrous to the secluding one.
What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless.
My ideal indeed can be put into a few words and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to
make it manifest in every movement of life.
Who will give the world light? Sacrifice in the past has been the Law, it will be, alas, for ages to come. The
earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all.
The conviction has grown in my mind after all my travels in various lands that no great cause can succeed
without an organisation.
The next great upheaval which is to bring about a new epoch will come from Russia or China.
The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But
each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own
law of growth.
If there were no fanaticism in the world, it would make much more progress than it does now.
I have neither father nor mother nor brothers nor sisters no friends no foes, nor home nor country - a
traveller in the way of eternity - asking no other help seeking no other help but God.

4. n his 150th birth anniversary, as we remember Swami Vivekananda, the monk who obtained
sublime greatness at the feet of his Guru - Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, we enlist some pearls of
his wisdom, so that we too may get inspired.
We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are
secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of
everything.
The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I
stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from
bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.
The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.
Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands,
bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God
will be in them
Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If
there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
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.
First, believe in the world—that there is meaning behind everything.
Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite
patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.
This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the
blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always
true. Get hold of yourself.

5. I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from a anyone
anything they really deserve.
Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the
negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.
First get rid of the delusion “I am the body”, then only will we want real knowledge.
We have to go back to philosophy to treat things as they are. We are suffering from our own
karma. It is not the fault of God. What we do is our own fault, nothing else. Why should God be
blamed?
Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out
of that will come great work.
We must have friendship for all; we must be merciful toward those that are in misery; when
people are happy, we ought to be happy; and to the wicked we must be indifferent. These
attitudes will make the mind peaceful.
Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.
Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those
who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.
Whenever we attain a higher vision, the lower vision disappears of itself.
A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob
in a century.
Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion.
Man comes from God in the beginning, in the middle he becomes man, and in the end he goes
back to God.
He is an Acharya through whom the Divine Power acts.
Despondency is not religion, whatever else it may be. By being pleasant always and smiling, it
takes you nearer to God, nearer than any prayer.

6. The greatest men in the world have passed away unknown. Silently they live and silently they
pass away; and in time their thoughts find expression in Buddhas or Christs, and it is these latter
that become known to us.