Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Swami VivekanandaRead
I hate cowardice; I will have nothing to do with cowards or political nonsense.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a strong disdain for cowardice and a rejection of those who engage in it.
In this quote, Swami Vivekananda emphasizes the importance of courage and integrity. He firmly rejects cowardice and the political deceit often associated with it, underlining a belief that true strength is found in standing up for one's convictions rather than succumbing to fear or falsehood. This statement reflects a call to embrace bravery in both personal and political spheres.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, one could use this quote to inspire listeners to face their fears.
Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Rama, the ancient idol of the heroic ages, the embodiment of truth, of morality, the ideal son, the ideal husband, and above all, the ideal king, this Rama has been presented before us by the great sage Valmiki. No language can be purer, none chaster, none more beautiful, and at the same time simpler, than the language in which the great poet has depicted the life of Rama.
Hinduism threw away Buddhism after taking its sap. The attempt of all the Southern Acharyas was to effect a reconciliation between the two. Shankaracharya's teaching shows the influence of Buddhism. His disciples perverted his teaching and carried it to such an extreme point that some of the later reformers were right in calling the Acharya's followers "crypto-buddhists".
According to the law of nature, wherever there is an awakening of a new and stronger life, there it tries to conquer and take the place of the old and the decaying. Nature favours the dying out of the unfit and the survival of the fittest. The final result of such conflict between the priestly and the other classes has been mentioned already.
I have come to deal with principles. I have only to preach that God comes again and again, and that He came in India as Krishna, Rama, and Buddha, and that He will come again. It can almost be demonstrated that after each 500 years the world sinks, and a tremendous spiritual wave comes, and on the top of the wave is a Christ.
Salvation means knowing the truth. We do not become anything; we are what we are. Salvation [comes] by faith and not by work. It is a question of knowledge! You must know what you are, and it is done. The dream vanishes. This you [and others] are dreaming here. When they die, they go to [the] heaven [of their dream]. They live in that dream, and [when it ends], they take a nice body [here], and they are good people.
Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."
For years I was a rock climber and nothing else. I went to school, yes, and university, yes, but in my heart I was a rock climber.
People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically... No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Trump started talking about bringing back stop-and-frisk, which was ruled unconstitutional. And as a black man, that was the last thing I wanted to hear. That you will basically pass laws to say that I can be profiled, and it is legal.
This is not the time to marry. My country is calling me. I have taken a vow to serve the country with my heart and soul.
We live in the kind of world where courage is the most essential of virtues; without courage, the other virtues are useless.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.