Swami Vivekananda on Religion

"God is merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come."

"As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss . You are the God of this universe."

"Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world."

"There is one thing to be remembered: that the assertion — I am God — cannot be made with regard to the sense-world."

"To believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul. Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly."

"However we may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite."

"The Soul is not composed of any materials. It is unity indivisible. Therefore it must be indestructible."

"Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry. The soul has no sex, no country, no place, no time."

"Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet."

"The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe—the body—is the soul."

"In spirituality the Americans are very inferior to us. But their society is very superior to ours"

"Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self , the God of the universe."

"In one word, this ideal is that you are divine."

"This is no world. It is God Himself. In delusion we call it world."

"Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin — to say that you are weak, or others are weak."

"Buddha is the only prophet who said, I do not care to know your various theories about God. What is the use of discussing all the subtle doctrines about the soul? Do good and be good."

"You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself."

"He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself."

"Despondency is not religion, whatever else it may be."

"We believe that every being is divine, is God. Every soul is a sun covered over with clouds of ignorance; the difference between soul and soul is owing to the difference in density of these layers of clouds."

"Unselfishness is God."

"Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that they also realize the supreme truth—Brahman. Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God."

"Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us."

"I am the thread that runs through all these pearls," and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runs through all of them; most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it."

"The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings. They are His multiple forms. There is no other God to seek. . . . It is a man-making religion that we want. . . . Give up these weakening mysticisms, and be strong. . . . For the next fifty years. ... let all other gods disappear from our minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race, everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet, everywhere His ears; He covers everything. . . . The first of all worships is the worship of those all around us. ... He alone serves God who serves all other beings."

"The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God."

"It is here that Indians build temples for Mohammedans and Christians; nowhere else. If you go to other countries and ask Mohammedans or people of other religions to build a temple for you, see how they will help. They will instead try to break down your temple and you too, if they can."

"All who have actually attained any real religious experience never wrangle over the form in which the different religions are expressed. They know that the soul of all religions is the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does not speak in the same tongue."

"“One of the chief distinctions between the Vedic and the Christian religion is that the Christian religion teaches that each human soul had its beginning at its birth into this world, whereas the Vedic religion asserts that the spirit of man is an emanation of the Eternal Being and has no more a beginning than God Himself."