57 Motivational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda on Self-Confidence, The Youth, and Karma

31 Motivational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda on Self-Confidence

1. “Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.”

2. “All the actions that we see in the world, all the movements in human society, all the works that we have around us, are simply the display of thought, the manifestation of the will of man.”

3. “Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. He who has no faith in himself can never have any faith in God.” [Read an explanation here]

4. “It is the level-headed man, the calm man, of good judgment and cool nerves, of great sympathy and love, who does good work and so does good to himself. The fanatic is foolish and has no sympathy; he can never straighten the world, nor himself.”

5. “The highest men do not seek to get any name or fame from their knowledge. They leave their ideas to the world; they put forth no claims for themselves and establish no schools or systems in their name. . . They are the pure Sāttvikas, who can never make any stir, but only melt in love.”

6. “Be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon any one outside, but be a man, stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find, that is always true [you are to blame]. Get a hold of yourself.”

7. “If you read the Vedas, you will find this word always repeated—fearlessness—fear nothing. Fear is a sign of weakness. A man must go about his duties without taking notice of the sneers and the ridicule of the world.” [Read an explanation here]

8. “The greatest power is lodged in the fine, not the coarse. We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles swell. . . and we think the muscles are powerful things. But it is the thin thread-line things, the nerves, which bring power to the muscles; the moment one of these threads is cut off from reaching the muscles, they are not able to work.”

9. “Purity and morality have always been the object of religion; a pure, moral man has control of himself.”

10. “When a jar is being filled with water, it makes a noise, but when it is full, there is no noise.”

11. “The Vedānta recognizes no sin, it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedānta, is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and that you cannot do this and that. Every time you think in that way. . . you rivet one more link in the chain that binds you down.”

12. “The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them. . . Never say, ‘No’, never say, ‘I cannot’, for you are infinite.”

13. “If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. If any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves.”

14. “Be free; hope for nothing from anyone. . .  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 help that has come was from within yourselves. You only had the fruits of what you yourselves worked for, and yet you were strangely hoping all the time for help.”

15. “[When you see God in yourself] the whole vision is changed, and instead of an eternal prison, the world has become a playground; instead of a land of competition, it is a land of bliss. . . This very world becomes heaven, which formerly was hell.”

16. “The history of the world shows that those who never thought of their little individuality were the greatest benefactors of the human race, and that the more men and women think of themselves, the less they are able to do for others.”

17. “Rise thou effulgent one, rise thou who are always pure, rise thou birthless and deathless, rise almighty, and manifest thy true nature. These little manifestations do not befit thee.”

18. “Get a hold of the Self. Stand up. In the midst of all miseries and all weakness, let the Self come out, faint and imperceptible though it will be at first. You will gain courage, and at last like a lion you will roar out, ‘I am It! I am It!’ ‘I am neither a man, nor a woman, nor a god, nor a demon; no, nor any of the animals, plants or trees. I am neither poor nor rich, neither learned nor ignorant. . . Behold the sun and the moon and the stars: I am the light that is shining in them! I am the beauty of the fire! I am the power in the universe. For, I am It! I am It!’”

19. “Success is speedy for the extremely energetic.”

20. “The smaller and the more selfish I make myself, the more is my fear. If a man thinks he is a little nothing, fear will surely come upon him. And the less you think of yourself as an insignificant person, the less fear there will be for you.”

21. “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness.”

22. “If you have three things, each one of you will work miracles: thought, sincerity, and purity of purpose. You need not write in the newspapers, you need not go about lecturing; your very face will shine. If you live in a cave, your thoughts will even permeate through the rock walls, will go vibrating all over the world for hundreds of years, maybe, until they will fasten on to some brain and work out there.”

23. “All the power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that you are weak. . . You can do anything and everything without even the guidance of any one. All the power is there. Stand up and express the divinity within you.”

24. “Beware of compromises. . . Hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others’ ‘fads’ through the greed of getting supporters. Your Ātman is the support of the universe—whose support do you need to stand in need of?”

25. “Say not man is a sinner. Tell him that he is a God. Even if there were a devil, it would be our duty to remember God always, not the devil. If the room is dark, the constant feeling and repeating of darkness will not take it away, but bring in the light.”

26. “Have fire and spread all over. Work, work. Be the servant while leading. Be unselfish. . . Have infinite patience, and success is yours.”

27. “Do not be afraid of a small beginning, great things come afterwards. Be courageous. Do not try to lead your brethren, but serve them. The brutal mania for leading has sunk many a great ship in the waters of life.”

28. “Fortune is like a flirt; she cares not for him who wants her, but she is at the feet of him who does not care for her. Money comes and showers itself upon one who does not care for it; so does fame. . . The Master is he who can live in spite of them, whose life does not depend upon the little foolish things of the world. Live for an ideal, and that ideal alone. Let it be so great, so strong, that there may be nothing else left in the mind; no place or time for anything else.”

29. “We shall all die! Bear this in mind always, and then the spirit within will wake up. Then only, meanness will vanish from you, practicality in work will come, you will get new vigour in mind and body, and those who come in contact with you will also feel that they have really got something uplifting from you.”

30. “Do not be miserable! Do not repent! What is done is done. If you burn yourself, [take the consequences]. . .”

31. “What is the use of talking of one’s mistakes to the world? They cannot thereby be undone. For what one has done one must suffer; one must try and do better. The world sympathizes only with the strong and the powerful.”

15 Inspiring Swami Vivekananda Quotes for the Youth

The youth has always had an abundance of energy, drive, and the desire to make a positive impact in the world. Unfortunately, society clips its wings early, forcing it to fit into a mould that doesn’t work.

It’s not just the youth that misses out as a result; even society does—we’re deprived of many possible innovations and inventions that could make the world a better place.

Swami Vivekananda didn’t care much about society. He wanted to youth to “put their should to the wheel” and work selflessly. This won’t just uplift society and the world, but even the individual itself.

If you’re a youth at heart, here are 11 motivational quotes by Swami Vivekananda that can change the very fabric of your existence. They will fill you with vigor, help you discover purpose, and empower you to make an impact in the world.

1. “Put yourself to work, and you will find such tremendous power coming to you that you will find it hard to bear. Even the least work done for others awakens the power within; even thinking the least good of others gradually instills in the heart the strength of a lion.”

2. “Saying ‘I can’ won’t do. Show me through action what you can do. . . As you have come into this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference between you and the trees and stones?”

3. “Act on the educated young men, bring them together, and organize them. Great things can be done by great sacrifices only. . . Work, work the idea, the plan, my boys, my brave, noble, good souls—to the wheel put your shoulders!”

4. “We now mostly need the ideal of a hero with the tremendous spirit of Rajas thrilling through his veins from head to foot—the hero whose armor is renunciation, whose sword is wisdom. We want now the spirit of the brave warrior in the battlefield of life, and not the wooing lover who looks upon pleasure as a life-garden!”

5. “He is the best ruler who can serve well. . . Be perfectly unselfish, and you will succeed. . . Without losing the independence in work, show all regards to your superiors. Work in harmony. . . Have patience, perseverance, and purity.”

6. “Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that. You never help one by talking about his fault; you do him an injury and injure yourself as well.”

7. “Our best work is done, our greatest influence is exerted, when we are without thought of self. All great geniuses know this. . . Be perfectly resigned, perfectly unconcerned; then alone you can do any true work.”

8. “Shri Ramakrishna used to say that if you repeatedly tell a bad man that he is good, he turns in time to be good; similarly, a good man becomes bad if he is incessantly called so.”

9. “Renunciation, giving up, fearlessness, and love; these are the fittest to survive.”

10. “Brave, bold men, these are what we need. What we want is vigor in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas.”

11. “By knowing how to work, one can obtain the greatest results. You must remember that all work is simply to bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul. The power is inside every man, so is knowing; the different works are like blows to bring them out, to cause these giants to wake up.”

12. “A man must be active in order to pass through activity into perfect calmness.”

13. “The secret to work is this: Let the end and the means be joined into one. When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.”

 14. “If you can invariably take the position of a giver, in which everything given by you is a free offering to the world, without any thought of return, then will your work bring you no attachment. Attachment comes only when we expect a return.”

15. “Excessive mirth makes us unfit for serious thought. It fritters away energy of the mind in vain. The stronger the will, the less yielding [the mind is] to the sway of emotions. Excessive hilarity is quite as objectionable as too much of sad seriousness, and all realization is only possible when the mind is in a steady, peaceful condition of equilibrium.”

11 Insightful Quotes by Swami Vivekananda on Karma

Karma is our actions as well as the fruit we get in return. Karma is not a bitch, nor is it friendly; it’s merely indifferent. You reap what you sow, in thought, words, and action.

This means you can improve your karma (effect) by improving its cause (your actions). Here are 11 quotes by Swami Vivekananda that can change how you see karma.

1. “Man is not bound by any other laws excepting those which he makes for himself. Our thoughts, our words and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw around ourselves, for good or for evil.”

2. “If I set the wheels in motion, I am responsible for the result. And if I can bring misery, I can also stop it. It necessarily follows that we are free. There is no such thing as fate. There is nothing to compel us. What we have done, that we can undo.”

3. “Some Karma we have worked out already, some we are working out now in the present, and some are waiting to bear fruit in the future. The first kind is past and gone. The second we will have to work out, and it is only that which is waiting to bear fruit in the future that we can conquer and control, towards which end all of our forces should be directed.

4. “Never is misery undeserved… there has never been any evil for which I did not pave the way with my own hands… Every blow you have received came to you because you prepared yourselves for it. You did half and the external world did the other half.”

5. “Who can make us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark. Take the hand away and there is light; the light exists always for us.”

6. “‘In this evanescent world, where everything is falling to pieces, we have to make the highest use of what we have,’ says the Bhakta; and really the highest use of life is to hold it at the service of other beings.”

7. “There is a cloud shedding its rain on all fields alike. But it is only the field that is well-cultivated which gets the advantage of the shower; another field which has not been tilled or taken care of cannot get that advantage.”

8. “To give and take is the law of nature. Any individual or class or nation that does not obey this law never prospers in life.”

9. “No human institution is beyond abuse. Would you cook nothing because there are beggars? Would you possess nothing because there are thieves?”

10. “Let your love go to all, whatever they do to you. A blind man cannot see color, so how can we see evil unless it is in us?”

11. “He who always speculates as to what awaits him in the future, accomplishes nothing whatsoever. What you have understood as true and good, just do that at once. . . The span of life is so, so short—and can anything be accomplished in it if you go on forecasting and computing results?”

Conclusion

Through his quotes, speeches, and writings, Swami Vivekananda encourages us to see ourselves as lions rather than sheep.

He pushes us to work for a larger cause of service to others. He reminds us that we have what it takes to become heroes rather than wait for a hero to rescue us. After all, a hero is someone who chooses to do something about an issue. [h/t Raghava Krishna for this meaning of a hero.]

Work selflessly. Let immense strength fill you such that you no longer notice the pettiness around you. Selfless work doesn’t just uplift a society, a nation, or the world. It also uplifts our own selves.