Swami Vivekananda

The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being.

Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world.

Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.

Superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.

Strength is the sign of vigor, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health, and the sign of everything that is good. As long as the body lives, there must be strength in the body, strength in the mind, strength in the hand.

Stand upon the Self, only then can we truly love the world. Take a very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.

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. All the strength and succor you want is within yourself. Therefore make your own future.

Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self (atman), the God of the universe.

Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted, cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky.

So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire.

Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions and monstrosities.

Religion as a science, as a study, is the greatest and healthiest exercise that the human mind can have.

Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and, above all, love.

Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are …[but] unless you realize the Self (atman), there is no freedom.

Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are ...but unless you realize the Truth, there is no freedom.

Please everyone without becoming a hypocrite or a coward.

Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already.You and I, and all beings, are trying to manifest that infinity.

Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.

Our supreme duty is to advance toward freedom—physical, mental, and spiritual—and help others to do so.

Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. Those who have no faith in themselves can never have faith in God.

One who leans on others cannot serve the God of Truth.

No authority can save us, no beliefs. If there is a God, all can find Him. No one needs to be told it is warm; all can discover it for themselves. So it should be with God. He should be a fact in the consciousness of every person.

Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be unattached.

Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The man Vivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda is never born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.