Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Who builds a church to God and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name.

Monks are not expected to speak about themselves; the message is important, not the person.

Be grateful as your deeds become less and less associated with your name, as your feet ever more lightly tread the earth.

Saints rarely have friends; they are usually hated and derided, for they love and love is always rejected by hard-hearted men....saints do not advertise themselves; good men do not seek out a name in the world....the saints did what they did almost in stealth, asking nothing except that men love God.

I don't want them to be told to remember me.

Missionaries are very human folks, just doing what they are asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.

If I've influenced people, so be it, but I don't dwell on those kinds of things. I just put out my music. If I influence someone without knowing it, I'm happy about it. I try not to think about those things because it's not about me.

I'd wish for my work to be remembered rather than myself.

I don't need the fame or power.

I am not seeking anything but service to my creator. I do not need a house, I do not need a car, I do not need any of that, but to be present with each guest that sits across from me, and I am committed to a bigger thing than me, which is the vision of own, because own is going to outlive all of us.

Tremendous purity, tremendous renunciation, is the one secret of spirituality. “Neither through wealth, nor through progeny, but through renunciation alone is immortality to be reached,” say the Vedas. “Sell all that thou hast and give to poor, and follow me,” says the Christ. So all great saints and prophets have expressed it, and have carried it out in their lives. How can great spirituality come without renunciation?

We do not find happiness by being assertive. We don't find happiness by running over people because we see what we want and they are in the way of that happiness so we either abandon them or we smash them. The Scriptures don't teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us — and this is remarkable — the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea.

Frida Kahlo taught me a lot without ever bragging about anything.

Verily, I do not like them, the merciful who feel blessed in their pity: they are lacking too much in shame. If I must pity, at least I do not want it known; and if I do pity, it is preferably from a distance.

Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if no one ever knew your name? If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for significance, would it be too great a price? To live a life of courage is not a guarantee of prestige or adulation. It only matters if you live and die fulfilling the mission you were born for.

If you want to be a conduit for God's grace, you don't have to be lined with gold. Copper will do.

Devotion is not a concept, not a certain kind of ideology, not a certain kind of act, it is the agent of dissolution.

If we do not cling to riches, selfishness or greed - then I believe we are getting closer to God.

I don't want to feel that I'm a singer or an actress - being able to say that those are just experiences is what I enjoy.

Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified

Plenty of people want to be pious, but no one yearns to be humble.

Only those who are ready to become nobodies are able to love.

One of the most difficult things to learn is to render service without bossing, without making a fuss about it, and without any consciousness of high and low. In the world of spirituality, humility counts at least as much as utility.

I don't need my name anywhere.

Can you lay your life down, so a stranger can live? Can you take what you need, but take less than you give? Could you close every day, without the glory and fame? Could you hold your head high, when no-one knows your name?