CaribbeanHindu.net - Non-Profit Educational Resource Center

Selected Quotations from Swami Vivekananda

Strength is Life, Weakness is Death

"This is a great fact: strength is life; weakness is death! Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery, weakness is death" - Swami Vivekananda

"The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them" - Swami Vivekananda

"What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men" - Swami Vivekananda

"You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men" - Swami Vivekananda

"When you have men who are ready to sacrifice their everything for their country, sincere to the backbone - when such men arise, India will become great in every respect" - Swami Vivekananda

Faith in Yourself; People May Ridicule Us

"Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Each man who thinks ahead of his time is sure to be misunderstood" - Swami Vivekananda

"The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves. That faith calls out the divinity within. You can do anything" - Swami Vivekananda

See God in the Poor

"This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others. He who see Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary" - Swami Vivekananda

"I do not believe in a religion of God which cannot wipe the widow's tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan's mouth" - Swami Vivekananda

"I do not care for liberation or for devotion; I would rather go to a hundred thousand hells doing good to others, silently like the spring - this is my religion" - Swami Vivekananda

Practice is Necessary

"Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen to me by the hour every day; but if you do not practice, you will not get one step further. It all depends on practice. We never understand these things until we experience them. We will have to see them and feel them for ourselves. Simply listening to explanations and theories will not do" - Swami Vivekananda

Wisdom of our Motherland

"The debt which the world owes to our Motherland is immense. Taking country with country, there is not one race on this earth to which the world owes so much as to the patient Hindu, the mild Hindu" - Swami Vivekananda

"Some of these old temples of Southern India, and those like Somnath of Gujarat will teach you volumes of wisdom, will give you a keener insight into history of the race that any amount of books. Mark how these temples bear the marks of hundred attacks and a hundred regenerations, continually springing up out of the ruins, rejuvenated and strong as ever!" - Swami Vivekananda

"I know that the race that produced Sita - even if it only dreamt of her - has reverence for woman that is unmatched on earth" - Swami Vivekananda

Priests Against Progress

"...In Travancore, the most priest-ridden country in India - where every bit of land is owned by the Brahmins...nearly one-forth has become Christians!" - Swami Vivekananda (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advita Ashrama, p.5, Vol. 5, Tenth Ed., 1973)

"Come, be men! Kick out the priests who are always against progress, because they would never mend, their hearts would never become big. They are the offspring of centuries of superstition and tyranny. Root out priest-craft first. Come, be men!" - Swami Vivekananda (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advita Ashrama, p.10, Vol. 5, Tenth Ed., 1973)