Swami Vivekananda citations

“Strength is Life, Weakness is Death.
Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death.
Love is Life, Hatred is Death.”

“Comfort” is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being “comfortable.”

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

“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.”

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”

“The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is not the fault of the fire.”

“Learn Everything that is Good from Others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it; do not become others.”

“Books are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.”

“All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.”

“The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine.”

“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.”

“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!”

“Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet.”

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

“Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you, but do not think of that now.”

“Do one thing at a Time, and while doing it put your whole Soul into it to the exclusion of all else.”

“All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.”

“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.”

“A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library; but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to.”

“There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point”

“Things do not grow better; they remain as they are. It is we who grow better, by the changes we make in ourselves.”

“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.”

“Woman has suffered for eons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite perseverance.”

“The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God.”

“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.”

“Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.”

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

“Anything that is secret and mysterious in these systems of yoga should be at once rejected. The best guide in life is strength. In religion, as in all other matters, discard everything that weakens you, have nothing to do with it.”

“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.”