Swami Vivekananda's Quotes On Culture ~ Swami Vivekananda Quotes

It is culture of the heart that we want.

—Swami Vivekananda

This article is on Swami Vivekananda's quotes and comments on culture. We have separate articles on Swami Vivekananda's quotes on Arts, Music etc. Please check the "Contents" page for these articles.

As to education and culture, it all depends upon the man. That is to say, where the men are highly cultured, there the women are; where the men are not, women are not.^[Source]
From the day when education and culture etc. began to spread gradually from patricians to plebeians, grew the distinction between the modern civilisation as of Western countries, and the ancient civilisation as of India, Egypt, Rome, etc.^[Source]
If the women are raised, then their children will by their noble actions glorify the name of the country -- then will culture, knowledge, power, and devotion awaken in the land.^[Source]
Instead of wasting your energies in vain discussions and quarrels in the newspapers, instead of fighting and quarrelling in your own homes — which is sinful — use all your energies in acquiring the culture which the Brahmin has, and the thing is done.^[Source]
It is culture of the heart that we want.^[Source]
It is culture that withstands shocks, not a simple mass of knowledge.^[Source]
It is my wish to convert this Math into a chief centre of spiritual practices and the culture of knowledge.^[Source]
It is open to us to do the same today; it is the culture of the heart, really, and not that of the intellect that will lessen the misery of the world.^[Source]
No amount of force, or government, or legislative cruelty will change the conditions of a race, but it is spiritual culture and ethical culture alone that can change wrong racial tendencies for the better.^[Source]
The finer the organism, the higher the culture—the greater is the power to enjoy pleasure and the sharper are the pangs of pain.^[Source]
The Hindu is just as practical as the Western, only we differ in our views of life. The one says, build a good house, let us have good clothes and food, intellectual culture, and so on, for this is the whole of life; and in that he is immensely practical. But the Hindu says, true knowledge of the world means knowledge of the soul, metaphysics; and he wants to enjoy that life.^[Source]
The only way to bring about the levelling of caste is to appropriate the culture, the education which is the strength of the higher castes. That done, you have what you want.^[Source]
The Vedic Rishis might not have had finish in their expression, but they were men of culture and heart, and we are brutes in comparison to them.^[Source]
There must come culture into the blood.^[Source]
To the Brahmins I appeal, that they must work hard to raise the Indian people by teaching them what they know, by giving out the culture that they have accumulated for centuries.^[Source]
We all know in modern times of nations which have masses of knowledge, but what of them? They are like tigers, they are like savages, because culture is not there. Knowledge is only skin-deep, as civilisation is, and a little scratch brings out the old savage. Such things happen; this is the danger. Teach the masses in the vernaculars, give them ideas; they will get information, but something more is necessary; give them culture. Until you give them that, there can be no permanence in the raised condition of the masses.^[Source]
What a wonderful culture there must have been among the Aryans twenty-five hundred years ago, to be able to grasp ideas!^[Source]
When I see how much the Vamachara has entered our society, I find it a most disgraceful place with all its boast of culture.^[Source]