50 Hindu Quotes About The World’s Oldest Religion

Align your chakras and tap into your spiritual side with our Hindu quotes. 

Hinduism is the world’s oldest spiritual path, dating back more than four thousand years. 

There are over 1 billion people who practice Hinduism. 

Learn more about this beautiful religion with our Hindu quotes below.

What is Hinduism?

Hinduism is a spiritual practice.

It is more profound than a religion; it is a dharma: a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. 

Check out these interesting facts about Hinduism:

• Hinduism is the world’s third-largest religion. 
• 94% of the world’s Hindu population lives in India. 
• There are over 1 billion people who practice Hinduism.

Hinduism has no specific founder, so some of the origins are difficult to trace for some people. 

Within Hinduism, there are many traditions and philosophies, with a large number of gods and minor deities. 

Hindus honor a diverse range of symbols and respect a variety of holy books. 

Some people misunderstand Hinduism and associate it with a rigid form of hierarchy; modern Hinduism does not enforce a strict caste system.

There are four major Hindu traditions: Smarta, Shaivism, Vaishnava, and Shaktiism.

Hinduism is more than a religion

When we hear or read the word religion, we usually have some archetypal ideas that come up.

In the West, people may think of their God, a founder, or a symbol representing their spiritual practice. 

Hinduism is unlike other religions in that it embraces many different religious ideas.

For this reason, some refer to Hinduism as more than a single organized religion but rather a way of life or a family of religions. 

What is henotheism?

You have probably heard of monotheism or polytheism, but what about henotheism?

Henotheistic practices mean believers worship a single deity, in this case, Brahman, but still recognize other gods and goddesses.

Hindus believe there are multiple paths to reach God. 

What is Samsara?

Samsara is a foundational concept in Hinduism. 

Samsara is the continuous cycle of life, death, and reincarnation. 

It is a Sanskrit term that means wandering through or aimless wandering.

Samsara is the idea that the soul must travel through a cyclic existence where our spirits are reborn into the wheel of life, death, and rebirth. 

To learn more, check out our Hindu quotes below. 

Short Hindu quotes for inner peace

We start with these short Hindu quotes about one of the world’s oldest religions. 

1. “Hinduism will burst upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before.” — Mahatma Gandhi

2. “’Do you believe in God, Venkat?’” Mitch asked. ‘Sure, lots of ’em,’ Venkat said. ‘I’m Hindu.’” ― Andy Weir

3. “That which we call the Hindu religion is really the Eternal religion because it embraces all others” — Aurobindo

4. “Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma.” — Swami Vivekananda

5. “The designation of wife in India, of the Hindu wife, is higher and grander than that of Empress.” ― Virchand Raghavji Gandhi 

6. “India is the meeting place of the religions, and among these, Hinduism alone is by itself a vast and complex thing.” — Sri Aurobindo

7. “Hinduism has become a conservative religion and, therefore, a mighty force because of the Swadeshi spirit underlying it.” — Mahatma Gandhi

8. “Hinduism is the mother of all religions” — Swami Vivekananda

9. “Hinduism is a relentless pursuit of Truth.” — Mahatma Gandhi

10. “Hindu Dharma is the quintessence of our national life.”  — Swami Vivekanand

The top Hindu quotes about inclusion and freedom

Hinduism is a very expansive religion with room for many modes of thought. 

11. “Hinduism is wholly free from the strange obsession of some faiths that the acceptance of a particular religious metaphysics is necessary for salvation.” — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

12. “Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives.” — Mahatma Gandhi 

13. “The essence of Hinduism is that the path may be different, but the goal is the same.” — Manmohan Singh 

14. “I consider myself a spiritual person. Was always very drawn to Buddhism, Hinduism. I still meditate.” — Marcia Clark

15. “The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

16. “No religion makes more use of color than Hinduism, with its blue-skinned gods and peony-lipped goddesses.” — Hanya Yanagihara

17. “Hinduism is so elastic and subtle that the most profound Methodist and crudest Idolator are equally at home with it.” — George Bernard Shaw 

18. “Hinduism is not a codified religion.” — Mahatma Gandhi

19. “India is the mother of religion: In her are combined science and religion in perfect harmony, and that is the Hindu religion.” — Annie Besant

20. “The essence of Hinduism is the same essence of all true religions: Bhakti or pure love for God and genuine compassion for all beings.” — Radhanath Swami

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Many say Hinduism is at the heart of all spirituality. 

21. “Hinduism the perennial philosophy that is at the core of all religions.” — Aldous Huxley

22. “Hinduism has an enormous capacity to absorb from outside influences and accept it in a peaceful and steady manner without perturbing the system.” — N. R. Narayana Murthy

23. “Hinduism’s basic tenet is that many roads exist by which men have pursued and still pursue their quest for the truth and that none has universal validity.” — Kenneth Scott Latourette

24. “Hinduism is synonymous with humanism. That is its essence and its great liberating quality.” — H. G. Wells

25. “Here an attempt is made to explain suffering: the outcaste of traditional Hinduism is held to deserve his fetched fate; it is a punishment for the wrongs he did in a previous life.” — Walter Kaufmann

26. “Hinduism, we inherited from our ancestors, and its protection is our ultimate religion.” — Tanmaya Guru

27. “In Hinduism, conscience, reason and independent thinking have no scope for development.” — B. R. Ambedkar

28. “Hinduism is not just a faith.” — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

29. “The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection.” — Mahatma Gandhi 

30. “Hinduism at its best has spoken the only relevant truth about the way to self-realization in the full sense of the word.” — Count Hermann Keyserling

Famous philosophical Hindu quotes about love and religion

Check out these deep quotes about spirituality and Hinduism. 

Hinduism offers a diverse and rich understanding of ourselves and the world around us.  

31. “We can’t equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu… Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.” — Jimmy Carter 

32. “He is a Hindu NRI, and I am a Christian, so I did a court marriage and had a Catholic wedding. The wedding was intimate with just family members.” — Rakhi Sawant 

33. “The mullahs of the Islamic world and, the mullahs of the Hindu world, and the mullahs of the Christian world are all on the same side. And we are against them all.” — Arundhati Roy 

34. “Hinduism with its message of ahimsa is to me the most glorious religion in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi 

35. “The sense of duty is the foundation of Hindu culture, and in performing duty, one finds freedom from within oneself through the highest accomplishment of yoga.” — Shivaya Subramaniyaswami

36. “At school and in my early 20s, I read every religious text I could get my hands on – Buddhist scriptures, Hindu texts, the Qur’an, and the Bible.” — Jennifer Connelly 

37. “I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.” — Hafez

38. “That the caste system must be abolished if the Hindu society is to be reconstructed on the basis of equality goes without saying.” — B. R. Ambedkar 

39. “From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it’s got you.” — Ram Dass

40. “The Hindu sage sees the whole of life.” — Dr. S Radhakrishnan

Hindu quotes and sayings to live by

We close our list with these insightful Hindu quotes about life, karma, and reincarnation.

41. “What compels the Hindu right’s volcanic reaction to Valentine’s Day?” — Elizabeth Flock 

42. “In terms of cultural upbringing, I’d be at the temple at the weekend; I’m a Hindu.” — Rishi Sunak 

43. “The ‘Robben Island Bible’ has arrived at the British Museum. It’s a garish thing, its cover plastered with pink and gold Hindu images, designed to hide its contents.” — Daniel Hannan 

45. “I’m a nationalist. I’m a patriot. Nothing is wrong. I’m a born Hindu. Nothing is wrong.” — Narendra Modi

46. “The ancient Vedas,  the oldest Hindu philosophy, and modern science agree that time is an illusion.” — Alan Arkin 

47. “You can say I’m a Hindu nationalist because I am a born Hindu, I’m patriotic, so nothing is wrong in it.” — Narendra Modi

48. “She fights for freedom of speech and stands for truth, and lives in the ghetto because her dad was the first person in Hindu mythology who came from the ’hood, but had gained enlightenment through not being a Brahmin.” — M.I.A. 

49. “When a person thinks, I am a Muslim, this other person is a Hindu, therefore she is my enemy, they reveal their own lack of spiritual depth.” — Tulsi Gabbard 

50. “I don’t teach my children what is Hindu and what is Muslim.” — Shah Rukh Khan 

Hinduism today

Today, the large majority of the world’s Hindu population lives in India. 

However, the impact of Hinduism has been felt across the globe.

Today, there are Hindus on every livable continent. 

What is your favorite Hindu quote?

Be sure to let us know in the comments.