Ramakrishna Quotes

All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.

God cannot be realized through intellect.

He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.

God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith.

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.

Every man is a book in which God himself writes.

What we know about God is important, but what we do with what we know about God is even more important.

Meditate on the Word in the Word.

In order that knowledge may not run riot, the author of the Gita has insisted on devotion accompanying it and has given it the first place.

To get at the core of God at his greatest, one must first get to the core of himself at his least, for no one can know God who has not first known himself. This core is a simple stillness, which is unmoved itself but by whose immobility all things are moved and all receive life.

We read many books, but that does not bring us knowledge. We may read all the Bibles in the world, but that will not give us religion. Theoretical religion is easy enough to get, any one may get that. What we want is practical religion.

You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God

(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books...If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God.

Religion is nothing but a science to attain wisdom, understanding, to know what life is, and to live it in utter celebration.

It may well be feared, that there is not enough Biblereading among us. It is not sufficient to have the Book. We must actually read it, and pray over it ourselves. It will do us no good, if it only lies still in our houses. We must be actually familiar with its contents, and have its texts stored in our memories and minds. Knowledge of the Bible never comes by intuition. It can only be obtained by diligent, regular, daily, attentive, wakeful reading.

Bestow upon me, O Lord my God, understanding to know thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to find thee, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace thee.

Each of us has a Soul. But no one has stopped to tell us what the Soul is in the world to do. Or if they have told us, they've given us incomplete information - for example, that our job is to get back to God. That is not our job. We couldn't get back to God if we wanted to, because we never left God.

Knowing the Self, God is known.

I don't want people to think that they can attain realization simply by listening to others or by reading books. They must practice what they read and hear.

Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.

I have studied this Book, and I would never even dream of saying I've come to the bottom of the Word of God.

God is beyond definition. But according to one's own vision or receptivity, one will define God in one's own way. Some will say that God is all Love. Others will say that God is all Power. Each one will see God according to his own necessity, his own receptivity and, finally, according to the way God wants him to see the ultimate Truth.

It is knowledge that ultimately gives salvation.