Quotes by Swami Vivekananda

“MY nature is love Him. And therefore I love. I do not pray for any-thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I can not trade in love.”

“TO worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Give your love unto to God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him through pray.”

“When we really begin to live in the world, then we understand what is meant by brotherhood or mankind, and not before.”

“Religion, the great milch cow, has given many kicks, but never mind,it gives a great deal of milk.”

“PRAYER is divine love alone. When this highest ideal of love is reached, philosophy is thrown away. Who will then care of it ? Freedom, salvation, nirvana- all are thrown away. Who cares to become free while in the enjoyment of divine love?”

“The goal of mankind is knowledge ... Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man knows, should, in strict psychological language, be what he discovers or unveils; what man learns is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”

“Infinite power of the spirit, brought to bear upon matter evolves material development, made to act upon thought evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon itself makes of man a GOd. First, let us be Gods, and then help other to be GOds. Be and Make. Let this be our motto.”

“Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man”

“When I Asked God for Strength He Gave Me Difficult Situations to Face When I Asked God for Brain & Brown He Gave Me Puzzles in Life to Solve When I Asked God for Happiness He Showed Me Some Unhappy People When I Asked God for Wealth He Showed Me How to Work Hard When I Asked God for Favors He Showed Me Opportunities to Work Hard When I Asked God for Peace He Showed Me How to Help Others God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted He Gave Me Everything I Needed.”

“Om Asato maa sad-gamaya; tamaso maa jyotir-ga-maya; mrtyor-maa amrutam gamaya. Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih. O Lord Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from the darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. May there be peace, peace, and perfect peace.”

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.

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.

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

Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable.

Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book!

Never say, O Lord, I am a miserable sinner. Who will help you? You are the help of the universe. What in this universe can help you? What can prevail over you? You are the God of the universe; where can you seek for help? Never help came from anywhere but from yourself. In your ignorance, every prayer that you made and that was answered, you thought was answered by some Being, but you answered the prayer yourself unknowingly. The help came from yourself, and you fondly imagined that someone was sending help to you. There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the universe. Like the silkworm, you have built a cocoon around yourself. Who will save you? Burst your own cocoon and come out as a beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. Then alone you will see Truth.

The knowing ones must have pity on the ignorant.One who knows is willing to give up his body even for an ant,because he knows that the body is nothing.

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.