QuotesSwami Vivekananda quotes
Swami Vivekananda (1863 to 1902) was a monk and a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. His address at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 11 September 1893 made him known across the world. His birthday, 12 January, is observed in India as National Youth Day. His lectures and letters are collected in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
Quotations
Sisters and Brothers of America, it fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us.
Swami Vivekananda, Address at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11 September 1893Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.
Swami Vivekananda, Lectures from Colombo to Almora (1897)Strength is life, weakness is death.
Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami VivekanandaEach soul is potentially divine.
Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga (1896)Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.
Swami Vivekananda, Letter, 1894, in The Complete WorksReligion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
Swami Vivekananda, Letter, 1894, in The Complete WorksThey alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
Swami Vivekananda, Letter to the Maharaja of Mysore, 1894So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
Swami Vivekananda, Letter, 1894, in The Complete WorksThe old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is the atheist who does not believe in himself.
Swami Vivekananda, Practical Vedanta, lecture in London, 1896We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think.
Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami VivekanandaThe greatest sin is to think yourself weak.
Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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The Chicago address
The first line on this page opens the short speech Swami Vivekananda gave on 11 September 1893 at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. He was thirty years old and almost unknown outside India. The greeting "Sisters and Brothers of America" is reported to have brought the audience to its feet. The speech went on to speak of tolerance and of India as a land that had sheltered the persecuted of many faiths. Its text is in the first volume of his Complete Works.
"Arise, awake"
His most famous call adapts a line from the Katha Upanishad, a Sanskrit scripture, which begins "Uttishthata, jagrata" ("arise, awake"). Vivekananda turned it into a message for a country he wanted to see confident and active, and it is now quoted every year on 12 January, his birthday, observed in India as National Youth Day.
What his message was
Across his lectures and letters three ideas return again and again: strength, service and self-belief. He told his listeners that weakness was the real enemy, that serving the poor was worship, and that education should draw out what is already in a person. The lines on this page were chosen to show all three.
Using these lines
- For Youth Day and school assemblies: "Arise, awake", and "Strength is life, weakness is death".
- For Teachers' Day and talks on education: "Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man."
- For NSS, NCC and service clubs: "They alone live who live for others."
Posters and social media carry many "Vivekananda quotes" that he never wrote. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, published by Advaita Ashrama, are the standard source, and each line here says where in his works it comes from.
Good to know
- "Arise, awake" echoes a verse of the Katha Upanishad, which Vivekananda made into a call to action.