Swami Vivekananda Quotes

“You are the makers of your own fortunes.

 You make yourselves suffer, you make good and evil, 

 and it is you who put your hands before your eyes and say it is dark.

 Take your hands away and see the light.”

“Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, 

 and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the truth.”

“True guidance is like a small torch in a dark forest. 

 It doesn’t show everything once.

 But gives enough light for the next step to be safe.”

“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.”

“We are to take care of ourselves – that much we can do – and give up attending to others for a time. 

 Let us perfect the means; the end will take care of itself. 

 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.”

“If you really want to judge of the character of a man, look not at his great performances. 

 Every fool may become a hero at one time or another.

 Watch a man do his most common actions; 

 those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man.”

“Be free; hope for nothing from anyone.

 I am sure if you look back upon your lives.

 You will find that you were always vainly trying to get.

 Help from others which never came.”

“All the powers in the universe are already ours.

 It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”

“See for the highest, aim at that highest, and you shall reach the highest.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

“You are the creator of your own destiny.”

“There is no help for you outside of yourself, you are the creator of the universe.

 Like the silk worm you have built a cocoon around yourself.

 Burst your own cocoon and come out the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. 

 Then alone you can see the truth.”

“Take risks in your life”.

 If you win, you can lead!

 If you loose, you can guide!

“Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart.

 But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their taste.”

“All the powers in the universe are already ours.

 It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”

“Misery comes through attachment, not through work.

 As soon as we identify ourselves with work we do, we feel miserable; 

 but if we don’t identify ourselves with it,we do not feel that misery.”