Swami Vivekananda

“Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection.”

“All the wealth of the world cannot help one little Indian village if the people are not taught to help themselves.”

“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 will is not free — it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect — but there is something behind the will which is free.”

“Until you become god, you cannot worship Him. Anyone who worships him while remaining a man is a hypocrite.”

“If anything makes you weak — turn away from it.”

“Everything in this life is fraught with fear. Renunciation alone makes one fearless.”

“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”

“When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.”

“The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is to be a conscious dreamer, that is all.”

“If I have done one good thing in my life, I had a thousand failures.”

“The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful.”

“We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.”

“If we have done good only with the hope of reward, we have done little.”

“Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind.”

“He who struggles is better than he who never attempts.”

“It is good to be born in a temple, but it is bad to die there.”

“Renunciation, Vairagya — that is the watchword.”

“Where there is life, there is death; where there is pleasure, there is pain; where there is light, there is darkness.”