15 Powerful Quotes by Swami Vivekananda

A plant bud with maroon leaves.

“In a day, when you don’t come across any problems – you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path.”

“The greatest sin is to think of yourself as weak.”

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”

“Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. It is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment.”

“Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it; do not become others.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Whatever you think, you will become; if you think yourself weak, weak you will be. If you think yourself strong, strong you will be.”

“We reap what we sow and that makes us the makers of our own fate.  When the wind is blowing, those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it and go forward on their way but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind and remain where they are. Is that the fault of the wind? We make our own destiny.”

“Believe in yourself and the world will be at your feet.”

“Things do not grow better; they remain as they are. It is we who grow better by the changes we make in ourselves.”

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

“People laugh at me because I am different;
I laugh at people cause the are all the same.”

“It is a very hard thing to understand but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the universe has power over you until you allow it to exercise such a power.”

“Talk to yourself at least once in a day otherwise you may miss meeting with an EXCELLENT person in this world.”

“Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of all our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment. Therefore, “arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached.”

Cheers!

Note : Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was an Indian Hindu monk and a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world. He was one of the most influential philosophers and social reformers in his contemporary India and the most successful and influential missionaries of Vedanta to the Western world. Indian Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore had suggested to study the works of Vivekananda to understand India. He also told, in Vivekananda there was nothing negative, but everything positive. To know more about Swami Vivekananda, click here.