Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Swami VivekanandaRead
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Believing in ourselves can help alleviate many of life's challenges and suffering.
Swami Vivekananda emphasizes the importance of self-belief and faith in oneself as a transformative force. He suggests that if society had prioritized and nurtured this belief, many of the struggles and adversities people face could have been significantly reduced, highlighting the intrinsic power of self-esteem and confidence in overcoming life's difficulties.
Themes
Self-BeliefFaithWisdomEmpowermentOvercomingChallenges
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire individuals to trust in their abilities.
More from Swami Vivekananda
All quotes βRama, 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.
Swami VivekanandaRead
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".
Swami VivekanandaRead
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.
Swami VivekanandaRead
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.
Swami VivekanandaRead
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.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Similar quotes
Do not worry about not holding high position; worry rather about playing your proper role. Worry not that no one knows of you; seek to be worth knowing.
ConfuciusRead
There is an old saying, or should be, that it is a wise economist who recognizes the scope of his own generalizations.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
As a younger person, my philosophy was jump off a cliff. I realize now that there are stairs and elevators. I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me. I can even ask for help! Not feeling that I have to know everything, and thatβs where the growth comes in, in the not knowing.
Tracee Ellis RossRead
Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.
RumiRead
One way to look at meditation is as a kind of intrapsychic technology that's been developed over thousands of years by traditions that know a lot about the mind/body connection.
Jon Kabat-ZinnRead
Mastery of language affords remarkable power.
Frantz FanonRead