Mahatma Gandhi

     I have come here [Belur Math] to pay my homage and respect to the revered memory of Swami Vivekananda, whose birthday is being celebrated today [6 February 1921]. I have gone through his works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand fold. I ask you, young men, not to go away empty handed without imbibing something of the spirit of the place where Swami Vivekananda lived and died.

Subhas Chandra Bose

     Though the swami never gave any political message, everyone who came into contact with him or his writings developed a spirit of patriotism and a political mentality ...
      ... Swamiji was a full-blooded masculine personality and a fighter to the core of his being. He was consequently a worshipper of Shakthi and gave a practical interpretation to the Vedanta for the uplift of his countrymen ... If he had been alive, I would have been at his feet. Modern Bengal is his creation - if I err not.
      ... The foundation of the present freedom movement owes its origin to Swamiji's message. The idea of complete freedom is manifest only in Ramakrishna-Vivekananda towards the end of the nineteenth century. "Freedom, freedom is the song of the Soul" - this was the message that burst forth from the inner recesses of Swamiji's heart and captivated and almost maddened the entire nation. This truth was embodied in his works, conversations and speeches.
      Swami Vivekananda on the one hand, called man to be real man freed from all fetters and, on the other, laid the foundation for true nationalism in India by preaching the gospel of the harmony of religions.

Sri Aurobindo ( In ' The Awakening Soul of India ' )

     Vivekananda was a Soul of puissance if ever there was one, a very lion among men, but the definite work he has left behind is quite incommensurate with our impression of his creative might and energy. We perceive his influence still working gigantically, we know not well how, we know not well where, in something that is not yet formed, something leonine, grand, intuitive, upheaving that has entered the soul of india and we say, "Behold, Vivekananda still lives in the soul of his Mother and the souls of her children."
     The visit of Swami Vivekananda to America and the subsequent work of those who followed him did more for India than a hundred London congresses could effect. That is the true way of awakening sympathy - by showing ourselves to the nations as a people with a great past and ancient civilization who still possess something of the genius and character of our forefathers, have still something to give the world and therefore deserve freedom - by proof of our manliness and fitness, not by mendicancy.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

     It was Swami Vivekananda who first held aloft the banner of Hinduism as a challenge against the material science ...It was Swami Vivekananda who took on his shoulders this stupendous task of establishing the glory of Hinduism in different countries across the borders. And he, with his erudition, oratorical power, enthusiasm and inner force, laid that work upon a solid foundation...Twelve centuries ago Sankaracharya was the only great personality, who not only spoke of the purity of our religion, not only uttered in words that this religion was our strength and wealth, not only said that it was our sacred duty to preach this religion in the length and breadth of the world - but also brought all this into action. Swami Vivekananda is a person of that stature - who appeared towards the last half of the nineteenth century.