Top 500 Swami Vivekananda Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “The sages are often ignorant of physical science, because they read the wrong book-the book within; and the scientists are too often ignorant of religion, because they too read the wrong book-the book outside.”

— Swami Vivekananda

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352. “The more opposition there is, the better. Does a river acquire velocity unless there is resistance? The newer and better a thing is, the more opposition I will meet with at the outset. It is opposition which foretells success. Where there is no opposition there is no success either.”

— Swami Vivekananda

353. “Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to know.”

— Swami Vivekananda

354. “Man is guided by the stomach. He walks and the stomach goes first and the head afterwards. Have you not seen that? It will take ages for the head to go first.”

— Swami Vivekananda

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355. “To make a great future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.”

— Swami Vivekananda

356. “The calm man is not the man who is dull. You must not mistake Sattva for dullness or laziness. The calm man is the one who has control over the mind waves. Activity is the manifestation of inferior strength, calmness, of the superior.”

— Swami Vivekananda

357. “As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave.”

— Swami Vivekananda

358. “It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one’s own good.”

— Swami Vivekananda

359. “Man is the nearest approach to Brahman.”

— Swami Vivekananda

360. “To me the thought of oneself as low and humble is a sin and ignorance.”

— Swami Vivekananda

361. “Shri Ramakrishna used to say, “As long as I live, so long do I learn”. That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death.””

— Swami Vivekananda

362. “To me an Indian is one who has got a Vedantic brain which probes deep and soars high; an Islamic body that is vibrant and valiant; a Buddhistic heart overflowing with compassion and kindness and Christian limbs of service and sacrifice.”

— Swami Vivekananda

363. “Marriage is not for individual happiness, but for the welfare of the nation and the caste.”

— Swami Vivekananda

364. “To be unselfish, perfectly selfless, is salvation itself; for the man within dies, and God alone remains.”

— Swami Vivekananda

365. “The power is with the silent ones, who only live and love and then withdraw their personality. They never say “me” and “mine”; they are only blessed in being instruments.”

— Swami Vivekananda

366. “Have charity towards all beings. Pity those who are in distress. Love all creatures. Do not be jealous of anyone. Look not to the faults of others.”

— Swami Vivekananda

367. “This is the central idea of the Gita- to be calm and steadfast in all circumstances, with one’s body, mind, and soul centered at His hallowed feet!”

— Swami Vivekananda

368. “The ideal person 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.”

— Swami Vivekananda

369. “Ishvara is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality, or in other words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute by the human mind. Creation is eternal, and so also is Ishvara.”

— Swami Vivekananda

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370. “Know that every time you feel weak, you not only hurt yourself but also the cause. Infinite faith and strength are the only conditions of success.”

— Swami Vivekananda

371. “There is no good in store so long as malice and jealousy and egotism will prevail.”

— Swami Vivekananda

372. “Body is the name of a series of changes.”

— Swami Vivekananda

373. “The disciple must have great power of endurance. Bear all evil and misery without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy, or retaliation. That is true endurance, and that you must acquire.”

— Swami Vivekananda

374. “External nature is only internal nature writ large.”

— Swami Vivekananda

375. “None will be able to resist truth and love and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish even unto death, and loving? Then fear not, not even death.”

— Swami Vivekananda

376. “Self-sacrifice, not self-assertion, is the law of the highest universe.”

— Swami Vivekananda

377. “Think of a space in your heart, and in the midst of that space think that a flame is burning. Think of that flame as your own soul and inside the flame is another effulgent light, and that is the Soul of your soul, God. Meditate upon that in the heart.”

— Swami Vivekananda

378. “Knowledge of the Absolute depends upon no book, nor upon anything; it is absolute in itself. No amount of study will give this knowledge; is not theory, it is realization. Cleanse the dust from the mirror, purify your own mind, and in a flash you know that you are Brahman.”

— Swami Vivekananda

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379. “Advaita is the only system that gives us complete control over ourselves, takes off all dependence and its associated superstitions, thus making us brave to suffer, brave to do, and in the long run, attain to absolute freedom.”

— Swami Vivekananda

380. “I hate cowardice; I will have nothing to do with cowards or political nonsense.”

— Swami Vivekananda

381. “If a thing happens once, it can happen again. If any human being has ever realised perfection, we too can do so. If we cannot become perfect here and now, we never can in any state or heaven or condition we may imagine.”

— Swami Vivekananda

382. “The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. In meditation we divest ourselves of all material condition and feel our divine nature.”

— Swami Vivekananda

383. “As thou thinkest, so art thou.”

— Swami Vivekananda

384. “If you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can. He must grow.”

— Swami Vivekananda

385. “Our supreme duty is to advance toward freedom-physical, mental, and spiritual-and help others to do so.”

— Swami Vivekananda

386. “By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger; and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and in society.”

— Swami Vivekananda

387. “So long as we perceive this world in motion, we have to conceive will behind it.”

— Swami Vivekananda

388. “According to the Hindu way of thinking, marriage is rather a duty than a privilege.”

— Swami Vivekananda

389. “Have faith in yourself. You people were once the Vedic Rishis. Only, you have come in different forms, that’s all. I see it clear as daylight that you all have infinite power in you. Rouse that up; arise, arise – apply yourselves heart and soul, gird up your loins.”

— Swami Vivekananda

390. “The Upanishads do not reveal the life of any teacher, but simply teach principles.”

— Swami Vivekananda

391. “It is the Prana that is manifesting as motion.”

— Swami Vivekananda

392. “As the cause is, so the effect will be. Cause is never different from effect, the effect is but the cause reproduced in another form.”

— Swami Vivekananda

393. “Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha.”

— Swami Vivekananda

394. “No two persons have the same mind or the same body.”

— Swami Vivekananda

395. “Religion in India culminates in freedom.”

— Swami Vivekananda

396. “Change is always in regard to something which does not change, or which changes relatively less.”

— Swami Vivekananda

397. “The development of man is a return to an original perfection.”

— Swami Vivekananda

398. “I pity the Hindu who does not see the beauty in Jesus Christ’s character. I pity the Christian who does not reverence the Hindu Christ.”

— Swami Vivekananda

399. “Please everyone without becoming a hypocrite or a coward.”

— Swami Vivekananda

400. “So long as even a single dog in my country is without food, my whole religion will be to feed it.”

— Swami Vivekananda

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