This is a collection of Swami Vivekananda‘s quotes on ideal (Hindi: आदर्श, Bengali: আদর্শ)
- My ideal indeed can be put into a few words and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life.[Source]
- Devotion to an ideal never fails in sympathy, never becomes weary of sympathising with others.[Source]
- Even luxuries are arranged according to ideas and ideals, to make them reflect as much of thought-life as possible.[Source]
- Every person projects his or her own ideal on the outside world and kneels before it.[Source]
- For the ordinary man and the beginner, steady devotion (Nishthâ) to an ideal is of paramount importance.[Source]
- It(Religion) is the greatest motive power that moves the human mind. No other ideal can put into us the same mass of energy as the spiritual.[Source]
- It is a great thing to take up a grand ideal in life and then give up one’s whole life to it. For what otherwise is the value of life, this vegetating, little, low life of man?[Source]
- If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the man without an ideal makes fifty thousand. Therefore, it is better to have an ideal.[Source]
- In judging others we always judge them by our own ideals. That is not as it should be. Everyone must be judged according to his own ideal, and not by that of anyone else.[Source]
- Is it little heroism to be able to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of one’s ideal whatever that ideal may be?[Source]
- It is our duty never to lose sight of the ideal, whether we can approach it with sensible steps, or crawl towards it with imperceptible motion.[Source]
- Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone. Let it be so great, so strong, that there may be nothing else left in the mind; no place for anything else, no time for anything else.[Source]
- One man who manifests the ideal in his life is more powerful than legions whose words can paint it in the most beautiful colours and spin out the finest principles.[Source]
- Our ideal is the Brahmin of spiritual culture and renunciation. By the Brahmin ideal what do I mean? I mean the ideal Brahmin-ness in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present. That is the ideal of the Hindu race.[Source]
- That is the one great first step — the real desire for the ideal. Everything comes easy after that.[Source]
- The highest ideal is always selfless.[Source]
- The highest ideal of every man is called God.[Source]
- The ideal of man is to see God in everything. But if you cannot see Him in everything, see Him in one thing, in that thing which you like best, and then see Him in another. So on you can go.[Source]
- The highest ideal is eternal and entire self-abnegation, where there is no “I,” but all is “Thou”.[Source]
- The ideals of religion must cover the whole field of life, they must enter into all our thoughts, and more and more into practice.[Source]
- The Karma-Yogi is the man who understands that the highest ideal is non-resistance, and who also knows that this non-resistance is the highest manifestation of power in actual possession, and also what is called the resisting of evil is but a step on the way towards the manifestation of this highest power, namely, non-resistance.[Source]
- The life of the practical is in the ideal. It is the ideal that has penetrated the whole of our lives, whether we philosophise, or perform the hard, everyday duties of life. The rays of the ideal, reflected and refracted in various straight or tortuous lines, are pouring in through every aperture and windhole, and consciously or unconsciously, every function has to be performed in its light, every object has to be seen transformed, heightened, or deformed by it. It is the ideal that has made us what we are, and will make us what we are going to be. It is the power of the ideal that has enshrouded us, and is felt in our joys or sorrows, in our great acts or mean doings, in our virtues and vices.[Source]
- True love never comes until the object of our love becomes to us our highest ideal.[Source]
- We make an ideal but we have rushed only half the way after it when we make a newer one. We struggle hard to attain to some goal and then discover we do not want it.[Source]
- We must have an ideal.[Source]
- Without that ideal we cannot progress.[Source]
- Without the struggle towards the Infinite there can be no ideal.[Source]
- You must have a great devotion to your ideal, devotion not of the moment, but calm, persevering, and steady devotion.[Source]
