Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Work

“Work, work, work—I care for nothing else. Work, work, work, even unto death! Those that are weak must make themselves great workers, great heroes—never mind money, it will drop from the heavens.”

“Summon all your energies and set yourselves to work heart and soul; that will really be heroic.”

“We must plunge heart and soul and body into the work. And until we be ready to sacrifice everything else to one Idea and to one alone, we never, never will see the light.”

“If one has got power, one must manifest it in action.”

“He who does not work enough to earn his food will have to starve to death!”

“All have to work hard; all have to reach the depths of that infinite Energy. Behind the poor, behind the rich, there is the same infinite Energy.”

“Every one must work in the universe. Only those who are perfectly satisfied with the Self, whose desires do not go beyond the Self, whose mind never strays out of the Self, to whom the Self is all in all, only those do not work. The rest must work.”

“Those who are always down-hearted and dispirited in this life can do no work; from life to life they come and go wailing and moaning. ‘The earth is enjoyed by heroes’—this is the unfailing truth.”

“Work incessantly, holding life as something deified, as God Himself, and knowing that this is all we have to do, this is all we should ask for. God is in everything, where else shall we go to find Him? He is already in every work, in every thought, in every feeling. Thus knowing, we must work—this is the only way, there is no other. Thus the effects of work will not bind us.”

“Let us calmly and in a manly fashion go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary frettings and fumings.”

“To work, with undaunted energy! What fear! Who is powerful enough to thwart you!”

“Every work should be made thorough.”

“All work is spoilt by dilatoriness.”

“No great work is accomplished in this world by low cunning.”

“Continue doing your work as the Lord guides. Why bother about the opinion of this man and that?”

“Let the world say what it chooses, I shall tread the path of duty— know this to be the line of action for a hero. Otherwise, if one has to attend day and night to what this man says or that man writes, no great work is achieved in this world.”

“If you set to work in right earnest, then you are sure to be successful. Whoever works at a thing heart and soul not only achieves success in it, but through his absorption in that he also realises the supreme Truth—Brahman. Whoever works at a thing with his whole heart receives help from God.”

“We have to work, constantly work with all our power; to put our whole mind in the work, whatever it be, that we are doing. At the same time, we must not be attached. That is to say, we must not be drawn away from the work by anything else; still, we must be able to quit the work whenever we like.”

“When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.”

“It is only when the mind is very calm and collected that the whole of its energy is spent in doing good work. And if you read the lives of the great workers which the world has produced, you will find that they were wonderfully calm men. Nothing, as it were, could throw them off their balance. That is why the man who becomes angry never does a great amount of work, and the man whom nothing can make angry accomplishes so much. The man who gives way to anger, or hatred, or any other passion, cannot work; he only breaks himself to pieces, and does nothing practical. It is the calm, forgiving, equable, well-balanced mind that does the greatest amount of work.”

“The calmer we are, the better for us, and the more the amount of work we can do. When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds, and accomplish very little work. The energy which ought to have gone out as work is spent as mere feeling, which counts for nothing.”

“By work alone men may get to where Buddha got largely by meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a working Jnâni, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by both of them.”

“The greatest work is done only when there is no selfish motive to prompt it.”

“Each one of us will have to believe that every one else in the world has done his work, and the only work remaining to be done to make the world perfect has to be done by himself. This is the responsibility we have to take upon ourselves.”

“Doing work is not religion, but work done rightly leads to freedom.”

“If you want material wealth, work it out; it will come to you. If you want to be intellectual, work it out on the intellectual plane, and intellectual giants you shall be. And if you want to attain to freedom, work it out on the spiritual plane, and free you shall be and shall enter into Nirvana, the Eternal Bliss.”

“The calmer we are and the less disturbed our nerves, the more shall we love and the better will our work be.”

“Without losing the independence in work, show all regards to your superiors. Work in harmony.… My children must be ready to jump into fire, if needed, to accomplish their work. Now work, work, work! We will stop and compare notes later on. Have patience, perseverance, and purity.”

“You must put your body, mind, and all you have to some one work.”

“Work, work, for, to work only for the good of others is life.”