120+ Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Wisdom, Success, and Self-Confidence

Swami Vivekananda’s quotes are a testament to the wisdom and spiritual insight of one of India’s greatest philosophers and thinkers. Born in Calcutta, Swami Vivekananda rose to prominence as a spiritual leader and advocate of Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893. 

He is known for his inspiring speeches, messages of universal brotherhood, and his teachings on the unity of all religions. His words continue to influence people all over the world and inspire them to live a life of purpose and meaning.

64 Best Swami Vivekananda Quotes to Guide you in Life

Here are some of the best Swami Vivekananda quotes to remember in the toughest of times:

• 3 Golden rules! Who is helping you, don’t forget them. Who is loving you, don’t hate them. Who is trusting you, don’t cheat them.
• A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library, but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to.
• All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind because oneness is the secret of everything.
• All power is within you. You can do anything and everything. Believe in that. Do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. Stand up and express the divinity within you.
• As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.
• Bless people when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego.
• Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others.
• Both attachment and detachment perfectly developed, make a man great and happy.
• Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad.
• Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable.
• Each work has to pass through these stages: ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.
• Everything is easy when you are busy. But nothing is easy when you are lazy.
• Experience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth.
• External nature is only internal nature writ large.
• Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, ‘Thy will be done.’ We only dream of this bondage. Wake up and let it go.
• Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. …Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.
• I am proud to belong to a religion that has taught the world tolerance & universal acceptance. we believe not only in universal tolerance but we accept all religions as true.
• If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
• If I love myself despite my infinite faults, how can I hate anyone at the glimpse of a few faults?
• If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
• If superstitions enter, the brain is gone.

• On a day, when you don’t come across any problems – you can be sure that you are traveling on the wrong path.
• In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.
• It is our own mental attitude that makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.
• May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, and the Father in Heaven of the Christians give strength to you to carry out your noble idea.
• Neither money pays, not name, nor fame, nor learning; it is CHARACTER that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.
• Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.
• 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.
• 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.
• So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire.
• Stamp out the negative spirit as if it were a pestilence.
• Stand up, be bold, and take the blame on your own shoulders. Do not go about throwing mud at others; for all the faults you suffer from, you are the sole and only cause.
• Talk to yourself at least once a day otherwise you may miss meeting an excellent person in this world.
• That man has reached immortality, who is disturbed by nothing material.
• The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with an intelligent brain – and the whole world is at your feet.
• The cheerful mind perseveres and the strong mind hews its way through a thousand difficulties.
• The difference between architecture and building is that the former expresses an idea, while the latter is merely a structure built on economical principles. The value of matter depends solely on its capacity of expressing ideas.
• The earth is enjoyed by heroes – this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, I have no fear.
• The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is not the fault of the fire.
• The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.
• The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
• The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.

• The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.
• The whole point is to discipline the mind.
• The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.
• The will is not free – it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect – but there is something behind the will which is free.
• The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.
• There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point.
• They alone live, who live for others.
• Things do not grow better; they remain as they are. It is we who grow better, by the changes we make in ourselves.
• Throw away all weaknesses. tell your body that it is strong. Tell your mind that it is strong and have unbound faith and hope in yourself.
• Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.
• Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.
• 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 the future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.
• We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care of what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
• We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.
• Whatever you believe, that you will be, If you believe yourselves to age, ages you will be tomorrow. There is nothing to obstruct you.
• Whatever you think that you will be. If you think of yourself as weak, weak you will be; if you think of yourself as strong, you will be.
• When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.
• Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?
• You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.
• You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
• You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do a slave’s work.

10 Motivational Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Check these Swami Vivekananda quotes on motivation to help you march towards your goals in life:

• All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cried that it is dark.
• Always try to represent yourself as happy. Initially, it becomes your look, gradually it becomes your habit and finally, it becomes your personality.
• Anything that makes you weak – physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject it as poison.
• Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.
• Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.
• Arise! Awake! Stop not until the goal is reached.
• Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you, but do not think of that now.
• Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work. It is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment.
• Believe in yourself and the world will be at your feet.
• Conquer yourself and the whole universe is yours.

10 Swami Vivekananda Quotes in Hindi

Here are some profound Swami Vivekananda quotes in Hindi:

• मन की एकाग्रता ही समग्र ज्ञान है।
• बल ही जीवन है और दुर्बलता मृत्यु।
• मौन, क्रोध की सर्वोत्तम चिकित्सा है।
• दिल और दिमाग के टकराव में दिल की सुनो।
• खुद को कमजोर समझना सबसे बड़ा पाप है।
• चिंतन करो, चिंता नहीं; नए विचारों को जन्म दो।
• ज्ञान का प्रकाश सभी अंधेरों को खत्म कर देता है।
• भय और अपूर्ण वासना ही समस्त दुःखों का मूल है।
• शिक्षा व्यक्ति में अंतर्निहित पूर्णता की अभिव्यक्ति है।
• वह नास्तिक है, जो अपने आप में विश्वास नहीं रखता।

4 Education Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda always preached the significance of education and here are some important quotes on education by him:

• Education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in man.
• The very reason for nature’s existence is for the education of the soul.
• Books are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.
• The power of concentration is the only key to the treasure house of knowledge.

6 Self-Confidence Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Here are some famous Swami Vivekananda quotes on self-confidence:

• All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
• Dare to be free, dare to go as far as you’re thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.
• Do not wait for anybody or anything. Do whatever you can, and build your hope on none.
• I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve.
• In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.
• Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in your own way adsorb it; do not become others.

7 Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Youth

Check out these Swami Vivekananda quotes that will encourage and inspires the youth to fight for what they believe in and conquer them:

• Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
• Desire, ignorance, and inequality – this is the trinity of bondage.
• Do not lower your goals to the level of your abilities. Instead, raise your abilities to the height of your goals.
• Do one thing at a Time, and while doing it put your whole soul into it to the exclusion of all else.
• Don’t look back – forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience – then alone can great deeds be accomplished.
• With his great and tranquil thoughts, he captured the heat of Indian youth like no one did ever. He inspired youth to become self-sufficient and confident. 
• You are the creator of your own destiny.

10 Swami Vivekananda Quotes in Bengali

Check out these Swami Vivekananda quotes in Bengali:

• ওঠো , জাগো এবং লক্ষ্যে না পৌঁছানো পর্যন্ত থেমো না।
• ইচ্ছা শক্তিই জগৎ কে পরিচালনা করে থাকে।
• কোনো বড় কাজই কঠোর পরিশ্রম ও কষ্ট স্বীকার ছাড়া হয় নি।
• এমন কাজ করে চলো যে তুমি হাসতে হাসতে মরবে আর জগৎ তোমার জন্য কাঁদবে।
• আমি বিশ্বাস করি যে, কেউ কিছু পাওয়ার উপযুক্ত হলে জগতের কোনো শক্তিই তাকে বঞ্চিত করতে পারে না।
• মনের মতো কাজ পেলে অতি মূর্খও করতে পারে। যে সকল কাজকেই মনের মতো করে নিতে পারে, সেই বুদ্ধিমান। কোনো কাজই ছোট নয়।
• কাজ করো নির্ভীকভাবে। এগিয়ে চলো সত্য আর ভালোবাসা নিয়ে।
• যা পারো নিজে করে যাও, কারও ওপর আশা বা ভরসা কোনোটাই কোরো না।
• উঁচুতে উঠতে হলে তোমার ভেতরের অহংকারকে – বাহিরে টেনে বের করে আনো, এবং হালকা হও … কারণ তারাই ওপরে উঠতে পারে যারা হালকা হয়।
• মস্তিস্ককে উচ্চ মানের চিন্তা-ভাবনা দিয়ে পূর্ণ করো, দিবারাত্র এগুলোকে তোমার সামনে রেখে চলো, এগুলোর থেকে মহান কাজ বেরিয়ে আসবে।

5 Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Success

Here are some of the best Swami Vivekananda quotes on success to help you soar high in life:

• Be the servant while leading. Be unselfish. Have infinite patience, and success is yours.
• Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and above all, love.
• Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, and every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.
• 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.
• When you are doing any work.. do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.

5 Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Life

These Swami Vivekananda quotes on life will help you keep going through tough times:

• The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is to be a conscious dreamer, that is all.
• God is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.
• Strength is Life, Weakness is Death. Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death. Love is Life, Hatred is Death.
• Take risks in your life, If you win, you can lead! If you lose, you can guide!
• Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea.

5 Swami Vivekananda Birthday Quotes

Here are some birthday wishes for Swami Vivekananda to make his day brighter and sweeter:

• Happy birthday to a true spiritual leader and visionary who continues to inspire people around the world with his teachings of love, peace, and unity.
• May your birthday bring joy and happiness to all who are inspired by your wisdom, compassion, and dedication to service.
• On this special day, may the light of your teachings shine brightly, spreading peace and enlightenment to all seeking it.
• Wishing you a very happy birthday and many blessings as we celebrate the life and legacy of one of India’s greatest spiritual teachers.
• Here’s to another year of spreading love and hope in the world and to the continued celebration of your inspiring life and teachings on this special day.

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