Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Patience

“Patience is the best means of success.”

“He who has infinite patience and infinite energy at his back, will alone succeed.”

“The success sometimes may come immediately, but we must be ready to wait patiently even for what may look like an infinite length of time.”

“We want infinite energy, infinite zeal, infinite courage, and infinite patience, then only will great things be achieved.”

“All great things must of necessity be slow.”

“Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.”

“Take courage and work on. Patience and steady work — this is the only way. Go on; remember — patience and purity and courage and steady work.”

“Everything proceeds slowly, by degrees. Patience, purity, perseverance.”

“Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.”

“Wait, have patience, everything will come right in time.”

“Have patience and be faithful unto death. Do not fight among yourselves.”

“Wait, my child, wait and work on. Patience, patience.”

“Nothing else is necessary but these—love, sincerity, and patience.”

“Have infinite patience, and success is yours.”

“It won’t do to become impatient—wait, wait—patience is bound to give success.”

“Your Atman is the support of the universe — whose support do you stand in need of? Wait with patience and love and strength; if helpers are not ready now, they will come in time. Why should we be in a hurry? The real working force of all great work is in its almost unperceived beginnings.”

“Give up the notion that man is a responsible being, only the perfect man is responsible. The ignorant have drunk deep of the cup of delusion and are not sane. You, who know, must have infinite patience with these. Have nothing but love for them and find out the disease that has made them see the world in a wrong light, then help them to cure it and see aright.”

“The feeling of want is the real prayer, not the words. But you must have patience to wait and see if your prayers are answered.”

“Sâttvika people are very thoughtful, quiet, and patient.”

“We do not wait for help, we will work it out, my boy, be self-reliant, faithful and patient.”

“Patience is the best means of success.”

“If you all stand by me and do not lose patience, I assure you, we shall do great work yet.”

““I am Life, I am Death.” She it is whose shadow is life and death. She is the pleasure in all pleasure. She is the misery in all misery. If life comes, it is the Mother; if death comes, it is the Mother. If heaven comes, She is. If hell comes, there is the Mother; plunge in. We have not faith, we have not patience to see this. We trust the man in the street; but there is one being in the universe we never trust and that is God.”

“We have not the patience to go and work our way out. For instance, there is a fire in a theatre, and only a few escape. The rest in trying to rush out crush one another down. That crush was not necessary for the salvation of the building nor of the two or three who escaped. If all had gone out slowly, not one would have been hurt. That is the case in life. The doors are open for us, and we can all get out without the competition and struggle; and yet we struggle. The struggle we create through our own ignorance, through impatience; we are in too great a hurry. The highest manifestation of strength is to keep ourselves calm and on our own feet.”

“Are you really sure that you can stand to your ideals, and work on, even if the whole world wants to crush you down? Are you sure you know what you want and will perform your duty, and that alone, even if your life is at stake? Are you sure that you will persevere so long as life endures, so long as there is one pulsation left in the heart? Then you are a real reformer, you are a teacher, a Master, a blessing to mankind. But man is so impatient, so short- sighted! He has not the patience to wait, he has not the power to see. He wants to rule, he wants results immediately. Why? He wants to reap the fruits himself, and does not really care for others. Duty for duty’s sake is not what he wants. “To work you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof,” says Krishna. Why cling to results? Ours are the duties. Let the fruits take care of themselves. But man has no patience.”

“Can any work be done unless all of us gird up our loins? And be up and doing! “Fortune favours the brave and energetic.” Don’t look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.”

“The Vedantic position is neither pessimism nor optimism. It does not say that this world is all evil or all good. It says that our evil is of no less value than our good, and our good of no more value than our evil. They are bound together. This is the world, and knowing this, you work with patience. You were never bound by laws, nature never had a bond for you. That is what the Yogi tells you. Have patience to learn it. And the Yogi shows how, by junction with nature, and identifying itself with the mind and the world, the Purusha thinks itself miserable. Then the Yogi goes on to show you that the way out is through experience. You have to get all this experience, but finish it quickly. We have placed ourselves in this net, and will have to get out. We have got ourselves caught in the trap, and we will have to work out our freedom. So get this experience of husbands, and wives, and friends, and little loves; you will get through them safely if you never forget what you really are. Never forget this is only a momentary state, and that we have to pass through it. Experience is the one great teacher—experience of pleasure and pain— but know it is only experience. It leads, step by step, to that state where all things become small, and the Purusha so great that the whole universe seems as a drop in the ocean and falls off by its own nothingness. We have to go through different experiences, but let us never forget the ideal.”

“Work in harmony. Be patient with everybody.”

“If the sun by the cloud is hidden a bit, If the welkin shows but gloom, Still hold on yet a while, brave heart, The victory is sure to come.”

“The goal so shadowy seems and dim, Yet plod on through the dark, brave heart, With all thy might and main.”