Quotes from The Bhagavad Gita

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Curving back within myself I create again and again.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The happiness which comes from long practice, which leads to the end of suffering, which at first is like poison, but at last like nectar - this kind of happiness arises from the serenity of one's own mind.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Perform all thy actions with mind concentrated on the Divine, renouncing attachment and looking upon success and failure with an equal eye. Spirituality implies equanimity.
[Trans. Purohit Swami]”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“He who has let go of hatred
who treats all beings with kindness
and compassion, who is always serene,
unmoved by pain or pleasure,

free of the "I" and "mine,"
self-controlled, firm and patient,
his whole mind focused on me ---
that is the man I love best.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Hell has three hates: lust, anger and greed.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“कालो ऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो..... ( I am Time, the great destroyer of the world ~Bhagavad Gita 11.32)”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The man who sees me in everything
and everything within me
will not be lost to me, nor
will I ever be lost to him.

He who is rooted in oneness
realizes that I am
in every being; wherever
he goes, he remains in me.

When he sees all being as equal
in suffering or in joy
because they are like himself,
that man has grown perfect in yoga.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself - without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.They arise from sense perception,and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“They say that life is an accident, driven by sexual desire, that the universe has no moral order, no truth, no God.

Driven by insatiable lusts, drunk on the arrogance of power, hypocritical, deluded, their actions foul with self-seeking, tormented by a vast anxiety that continues until their death, convinced that the gratification of desire is life's sole aim, bound by a hundred shackles of hope, enslaved by their greed, they squander their time dishonestly piling up mountains of wealth.

"Today I got this desire, and tomorrow I will get that one; all these riches are mine, and soon I will have even more. Already I have killed these enemies, and soon I will kill the rest. I am the lord, the enjoyer, successful, happy, and strong, noble, and rich, and famous. Who on earth is my equal?”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is unmanifested. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone's heart.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There was never a time when you and I and all the kings gathered here have not existed and nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The embodied soul is eternal in existence, indestructible, and infinite, only the material body is factually perishable, therefore fight O Arjuna.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“The Lord said: "Time [death] I am, the destroyer of the worlds, who has come to annihilate everyone. Even without your taking part all those arrayed in the [two] opposing ranks will be slain!”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“We behold what we are, and we are what we behold.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Then, O King! the God, so saying,
Stood, to Pritha's Son displaying
All the splendour, wonder, dread
Of His vast Almighty-head.
Out of countless eyes beholding,
Out of countless mouths commanding,
Countless mystic forms enfolding
In one Form: supremely standing
Countless radiant glories wearing,
Countless heavenly weapons bearing,
Crowned with garlands of star-clusters,
Robed in garb of woven lustres,
Breathing from His perfect Presence
Breaths of every subtle essence
Of all heavenly odours; shedding
Blinding brilliance; overspreading-
Boundless, beautiful- all spaces
With His all-regarding faces;
So He showed! If there should rise
Suddenly within the skies
Sunburst of a thousand suns
Flooding earth with beams undeemed-of,
Then might be that Holy One's
Majesty and radiance dreamed of!”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“O Krishna, the mind is restless”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“It is Nature that causes all movement. Deluded by the ego, the fool harbors the perception that says "I did it".”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Performing the duty prescribed by (one's own) nature, one incurreth no sin.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

“Feelings of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are caused by the contact of the senses with their objects. They come and they go, never lasting long. You must accept them.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita

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Popular quotes

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“If you don’t need my backsight,” she said to Kaleb, “then why am I here?”

He rose to his feet and, placing his hands on the table, leaned toward her until she could’ve reached out and run her fingers along his freshly shaven jaw. “You are here,” he said in a tone that made her heart thump wildly against her ribs, “because you belong to me.”
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“The Yaksha asked, 'What is that which, if renounced, maketh one agreeable? What is that which, if renounced, leadeth to no regret? What is that which, if renounced, maketh one wealthy? And what is that which if renounced, maketh one happy?' Yudhishthira answered, 'Pride, if renounced, maketh one agreeable; wrath, if renounced leadeth to no regret: desire, if renounced, maketh one wealthy: and avarice, if renounced, maketh one happy.”
― C. Rajagopalachari, quote from Mahabharata

“Too many people learn about war with no inconvenience to themselves. They read about Verdun or Stalingrad without comprehension, sitting in a comfortable armchair, with their feet beside the fire, preparing to go about their business the next day, as usual.

One should really read such accounts under compulsion, in discomfort, considering oneself fortunate not to be describing the events in a letter home, writing from a hole in the mud. One should read about war in the worst circumstances, when everything is going badly, remembering that the torments of peace are trivial, and not worth any white hairs. Nothing is really serious in the tranquility of peace; only an idiot could be really disturbed by a question of salary.

One should read about war standing up, late at night, when one is tired, as I am writing about it now, at dawn, while my asthma attack wears off. And even now, in my sleepless exhaustion, how gentle and easy peace seems!”
― quote from The Forgotten Soldier

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

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