Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Love

“It is love alone that can conquer hatred. If there is power in hate there is infinitely more power in love.”

“Wealth goes, beauty vanishes, life flies, powers fly—but the Lord abideth for ever, love abideth for ever.”

“It is God in every one that draws us to the one we love, God in everything and in everybody that makes us love. God is the only love.”

“It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.”

“Love makes the whole universe as one’s own home.”

“It is the heart, the heart that conquers, not the brain. Books and learning, Yoga and meditation and illumination—all are but dust compared with love. It is love that gives you the supernatural powers, love that gives you Bhakti, love that gives illumination, and love, again, that leads to emancipation.”

“Love conquers in the long run.”

“Kâma (lust) is blind and leads to hell. Prema is love, it leads to heaven.”

“Let your love go to all, whatever they do to you.”

“Try to love anybody and everybody.”

“The whole world is full of God and not of sin. Let us help one another, let us love one another.”

“When we really begin to love the world, then we understand what is meant by brotherhood of mankind, and not before.”

“Every step that has been really gained in the world has been gained by love; criticising can never do any good, it has been tried for thousand of years. Condemnation accomplishes nothing.”

“To love anyone personally is bondage. Love all alike, then all desires fall off.”

“Love all creatures. Do not be jealous of anyone. Look not to the faults of others.”

“All things in the universe are of divine origin and deserve to be loved.”

“See all as Self and love all; let all idea of separateness go.”

“It is indeed very difficult to have an equal love for all, but without it there is no Mukti.”

“It is unswerving love and perfect unselfishness that conquer everything. We Vedantists in every difficulty ought to ask the subjective question, “Why do I see that?” “Why can I not conquer this with love?””

“Kindness and love can buy you the whole world; lectures and books and philosophy all stand lower than these.”

“All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.”

“The only way is love and sympathy. The only worship is love.”

“Love binds, love makes for that oneness. You become one, the mother with the child, families with the city, the whole world becomes one with the animals. For love is Existence, God Himself; and all this is the manifestation of that One Love, more or less expressed. The difference is only in degree, but it is the manifestation of that One Love throughout.”

“Come out into the broad open light of day, come out from the little narrow paths, for how can the infinite soul rest content to live and die in small ruts? Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours, stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you ever felt you wanted to do that, you have felt God.”

“In happiness, in misery, in famine, in pain, in the grave, in heaven, or in hell who never gives me up is my friend. Is such friendship a joke? A man may have salvation through such friendship. That brings salvation if we can love like that.”

“Don’t allow egoism to enter your minds, and let love never depart from your hearts.”

“What is it that makes atoms unite with atoms, molecules with molecules, and causes planets to fly towards each other? What is it that attracts man to man, man to woman, woman to man, and animals to animals, drawing the whole universe, as it were, towards one centre? It is what is called love. Its manifestation is from the lowest atom to the highest being: omnipotent, all- pervading, is this love. What manifests itself as attraction in the sentient and the insentient, in the particular and in the universal, is the love of God. It is the one motive power that is in the universe. Under the impetus of that love, Christ gives his life for humanity, Buddha even for an animal, the mother for the child, the husband for the wife. It is under the impetus of the same love that men are ready to give up their lives for their country, and strange to say, under the impetus of the same love, the thief steals, the murderer murders. Even in these cases, the spirit is the same, but the manifestation is different. This is the one motive power in the universe. The thief has love for gold; the love is there, but it is misdirected. So, in all crimes, as well as in all virtuous actions, behind stands that eternal love.”

“Unattached, yet shining in everything, is love, the motive power of the universe, without which the universe would fall to pieces in a moment, and this love is God.”

“Even in selfishness, that self will multiply, grow and grow. That one self, the one man, will become two selves when he gets married; several, when he gets children; and thus he grows until he feels the whole world as his Self, the whole universe as his Self. He expands into one mass of universal love, infinite love—the love that is God.”

“The reward of love is love, and what a reward it is! It is the only thing that takes off all sorrows, the only cup, by the drinking of which this disease of the world vanishes. Man becomes divinely mad and forgets that he is man.”

“There is only one element in life which is worth having at any cost, and it is love. Love immense and infinite, broad as the sky and deep as the ocean—this is the one great gain in life. Blessed is he who gets it.”