Vivekananda Inspirational Quotes

The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.

Anything that makes weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.

Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached.

They alone live, who live for others.

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

The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.

He who struggles is better than he who never attempts.

Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God.

Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of all our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment. Therefore, "arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached.

If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call that a sin? Nor, even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error. [...] man is not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the Infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these marks a stage of progress; and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength till it reaches the Glorious Sun.

The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. He has learnt the secret of restraint, he has controlled himself.

Imagination is the door to inspiration and the basis of all thought.

Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, these failures. What would be LIFE without them

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 some one 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 creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future. “Let the dead past bury its dead.” The infinite future is before you, and you must always remember that each word, thought, and deed, lays up a store for you and that as the bad thoughts and bad works are ready to spring upon you like tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of a hundred thousand angels to defend you always and for ever. (II. 225)

Men Men Men, these are wanted. Strong believing young men, A hundred such and the world will get revolutionized.

Fill the brain with high thoughts and highest ideals place them day and night before you and out of that will come great work

Be like fire; burn the non-essential.

Vivekananda used to say that it's the subtle which influences everything in our life.

The way of the warrior is to give up inner turmoil.

Before we can believe in God, we must first believe in ourselves.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

Zen Buddhism, for example, as practiced by Suzuki, the excellent Japanese mystic, has nothing to do with the superstitious and predjudiced Buddhism that infested Asia for centuries. Sufism, as boasted by the subtle Gurdjeff, totally differs from the Islamism that shouts death to the “infidels.” The doctrine of Vivekananda, inspired by his master Ramakrishna, is nothing like the Hinduism that suffocated India for centures of superstious and stupid passivity; the noble mysticism of Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, is nothing like the bloody cultural narrowness and tribal elitism of the mosaic orthodoxy.

The flowers that we see all around us are beautiful, beautiful is the rising of the morning sun, beautiful are the variegated hues of nature. The whole universe is beautiful, and man has been enjoying it since his appearance on earth. Sublime and awe-inspiring are the mountains; the gigantic rushing rivers rolling towards the sea, the trackless deserts, the infinite ocean, the starry heavens — all these are awe-inspiring, sublime, and beautiful indeed.

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.

Karma-Yoga, therefore, is a system of ethics and religion intended to attain freedom through unselfishness, and by good works. The Karma-Yogi need not believe in any doctrine whatever. He may not believe even in God, may not ask what his soul is, nor think of any metaphysical speculation. He has got his own special aim of realising selflessness; and he has to work it out himself. Every moment of his life must be realisation, because he has to solve by mere work, without the help of doctrine or theory, the very same problem to which the Jnâni applies his reason and inspiration and the Bhakta his love.

D esire, ignorance, and inequality this is the trinity of bondage

T ruth can be stated in a thousand different ways Yet each one can be true

B ooks 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

We reap what we sow We are the makers of our own fate None else has the blame None has the praise

Don’t look back only forward! Infinite energy infinite enthusiasm infinite daring and infinite patience then alone can great deeds be accomplished

You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself

Do not hate anybody because that hatred which comes out from you must, in the long run come back to you If you love that love will come back to you completing the circle

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; and this deserving is produced by Karma

If the mind is intensely eager everything can be accomplished Mountains can be crumbled into atoms

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

D o not look back upon what has been done Go ahead!

E xternal nature is only internal nature writ large

-our tears and our smiles, our joys and our griefs, our weeping and our laughter, our curses and our blessings, our praises and our blames--every one of these we may find, if we calmly study our own selves, to have been brought out from within ourselves by so many blows. The result is what we are. All these blows taken together are called Karma--work, action.

When it is acute, we call it disease; when it is chronic, we call it nature. It is a disease

The Rockefeller Rule ‘If your only goal is to become rich, you’ll never achieve it,’ said John Rockefeller, America’s first billionaire. His point was simple: when the only thing you care about is making money, no amount of money is ever enough. Adjusting for inflation, his fortune upon his death in 1937 stood at $336 billion, accounting for more than 1.5% of the American economy, making him the richest person in US history. His foundations pioneered the development of medical research and were instrumental in the eradication of hookworm and yellow fever. Rockefeller was also the founder of the University of Chicago. Today, multiple plazas, buildings, awards and foundations are named after him. A little-known fact: a meeting with Swami Vivekananda inspired him to use his wealth to help the poor and needy. All of this is to say that wealth is multi-dimensional. How you earn it, how you spend it, and what you make of it are unique. Just like your personality.

F ace the brutes That is a lesson for all life face the terrible face it boldly Like the monkeys the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them

T ake 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 that is the way great spiritual giants are produced

A Yogi must avoid the two extremes of luxury and austerity. He must not fast, nor torture his flesh. He who does so, says the Gita, cannot be a Yogi: He who fasts, he who keeps awake, he who sleeps much, he who works too much, he who does no work, none of these can be a Yogi (Gita, VI, 16).

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear Never fear what will become of you depend on no-one Only the moment you reject all help are you free

The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength.

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.

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. ❑

You, without the fear of censure, can take meat and fish to your heart's content. The whole country is flooded with hermits who become gastric patients by living on vegetables. These are not the symbols of purity, but of terrible ignorance and ignorance is the name of the darkness of death. A shining glow on countenance, irrepressible enthusiasm in heart and constant activity and inspired energy- these are the signs of purity. On the contrary, the signs of ignorance are indolence and weakness, indiscriminate attachment and desire for sleep.

I want to see the muscles of iron, and heart and veins of steel because within them the mind which is made of lightning and thunderbolts dwells. From the combination of strength, courage, the virility of a warrior, the brilliance of Brahman the new humanity of India should be created

The will is not free it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect but there is something behind the will which is free

A perfect life is a contradiction in terms.

t 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

F ear 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 This

Come out into the universe of light. Everything in the universe is yours. Stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you ever felt you wanted to do that, you have felt God.

day when you do not come across any problems you can be sure that you are travelling on the wrong path

I do not care for liberation, I would rather go to a hundred thousand hells, 'doing good to others(silently) like the spring', this is my religion.

Nothing Is Final, Change Is Always Possible If You Have The Courage To Make It Happen.

Y ou must avoid excessive merriment A mind in that state never becomes calm it becomes fickle

T he happiest moments we ever know are when we entirely forget ourselves

E xperience is the only teacher we have We may talk and reason all our lives but we shall not understand a word of truth until we experience it ourselves

Education is not the amount of information put into the human brain; it must have a man-making, character-making, and life-building assimilation of ideas that only by means something can be gained in the world. ~Swami Vivekananda

Education is not the amount of information put into the human brain; it must have a man-making, character-making, and life-building assimilation of ideas that only by means something can be gained in the world.