QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 54

What is the use of fighting and complaining? That will not help us to better things. He who grumbles at the little thing that has fallen to his lot to do, will grumble at everything. Always grumbling, he will lead a miserable life, and everything will be a failure. But that man who does his duty as he goes, putting his shoulder to the wheel, will see the light, and higher and higher duties will fall to his share.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 53

For the world can be good and pure, only if our lives are good and pure. It is an effect, and we are the means. Therefore, let us purify ourselves. Let us make ourselves perfect.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 52

I disagree with the idea that freedom is obedience to the law of nature. I do not understand what that means. According to history of human progress, it is disobedience to nature that has constituted that progress.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 51

Man begins to struggle and fight against nature. He makes many mistakes, he suffers. But eventually, he conquers nature and realizes his freedom. When he is free, nature becomes his slave.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 50

Unfortunately, in this life, the vast majority of persons are groping through this dark life without any ideal at all. If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the man without an ideal makes fifty thousand. Therefore, it is better to have an ideal.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 49

„Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.‟ Be of good cheer and believe that we are selected by the Lord to do great things, and we will do them.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 48

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 like tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of hundred thousand angels to defend you always and for ever.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 47

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 creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 46

Men in general lay all the blame of life on their fellowmen, 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 has the praise. The wind is blowing; and those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is the fault of the wind?

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 45

You have to grow from inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 44

All healthy social changes are the manifestations of the spiritual forces working within, and if these are strong and well adjusted. Society will arrange itself accordingly. Each individual has to work out his own salvation; there is no other way, and so also with nations. ….. It is very easy to point out the defects of institutions, all being more or less imperfect, but he is the real benefactor of humanity who helps the individual to overcome his imperfections under whatever institutions he may live. The individuals being raised, the nation and its institutions are bound to rise.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 43

This world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 42

Man is man, so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and his nature is both internal and external. ……. And if we read the history of nations between the lines, we shall always find that the rise of a nation comes with an increase in the number of such men; and the fall begins when the pursuit after the Infinite, however vain the Utilitarian may call it, has ceased. That is to say, the mainspring of the strength of every race lies in its spirituality, and the death of that race begins the day that spirituality wanes and materialism gains ground.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 41

This human body is the greatest body in the universe, and the human being the greatest being. Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is greater than man.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 40

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 future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 39

What do I care if Mohammed was a good man, or Buddha! Does that alter my own goodness or evil? Let us be good for our own sake and our own responsibility! Not because somebody way back there was good!

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 38

How to attain purity living this life? Shall we all go to the forest caves? What good it would do? If the mind is not under control, it is no use living in a cave because the same mind will bring disturbances there. We will find twenty devils in the cave because all the devils are in mind. If the mind is under control, we can have the cave anywhere, wherever we are. 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 proper light.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 37

Whatever you do, devote your whole mind, heart and soul to it. I once met a great sannyasi, who cleansed his brass cooking utensils, making them shine like gold, with as much care and attention as he bestowed on his worship and meditation.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 36

In the history of mankind, you will find that there come Messengers, and that from their very birth there mission is found and formed. The whole plan is there, laid down; and you see them swerving not one inch from that. Because they come with a mission, they come with a message, ….. When they speak, each word is direct; it bursts like a bomb-shell. What is in the word, unless it has the Power behind? What matters is what language you speak, and how you arrange your language? What matters it whether you speak correct grammar or with fine rhetoric? What matters it whether your language is ornamental or not? The question is: Whether or not you have anything to give? It is a question of giving and taking, and not listening. Have you anything to give? – that is the first question. If you have, then, give.

QUOTES FROM SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 35

Good and evil thoughts are each a potent power, and they fill the universe. As vibration continues, so thought remains in the form of thought until translated into action. For example, force is latent in the arm until he strikes a blow, when he translates it into activity. We are the heirs of good and evil thought. If we make ourselves pure and the instruments of good thoughts, these will enter us. The good soul will not be receptive to evil thoughts.