“The selfless man is the thunderbolt.”
– Sister Nivedita
“Let us strive only for selflessness, and we become the weapon in the hands of the gods.”
“In nation-making, there is but one ideal, carried out by different methods, and the interest is the common interest of self-sacrifice.”
“I believe that India is one, indissoluble, indivisible.”
“National unity is built on the common home, the common interest, and the common love.”
“Technical education, without higher research, is a branch without a tree, a blossom without any root.”
“By our own vision of the ideal, and by our own struggle to reach its height do we really rise; by no other means whatsoever.” – Sister Nivedita
“It is not by teaching a Bengali girl French, or the piano, but by enabling her to think about India, that we really educate her.” – Sister Nivedita
“We must surround our children with the thought of their nation and their country. The centre of gravity must lie, for them, outside the family.” – Sister Nivedita
“The highest art is always charged with spiritual intensity, with intellectual and emotional revelation.” – Sister Nivedita
“All that matters is our own struggle. By that do we rise.” – Sister Nivedita
“Struggle is worship. What else does the Gita teach its people?” – Sister Nivedita
“A man may be a fool in technical and academic knowledge and yet a sage in which he feels and desires.” – Sister Nivedita
“Real life begins when we die to the world of the senses.” – Sister Nivedita
“If we learn nothing else, let us learn to give, let us learn to serve, let us learn to renounce.” – Sister Nivedita