Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Swami VivekanandaRead
The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are the better for us and the more the amount of work we can do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Passion can hinder productivity, while calmness enhances work output.
This quote by Swami Vivekananda emphasizes that excessive passion can lead to distractions and reduce our effectiveness in task completion. A calm and composed approach allows for clearer thinking and greater productivity, ultimately enabling us to achieve more in our work.
Themes
CalmProductivityWorkPassionEffectiveness
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation at work, I quoted Vivekananda to encourage colleagues to remain calm under pressure.
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
I know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man's life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.
Ben JonsonRead
You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.
Ingrid BergmanRead
I'm terrified of passive acquiescence. I live in intensity.
Virginia WoolfRead
When people jump on your mistakes, don't hide from them; let people know that you're human, too.
Cory BookerRead
The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
Shunryu SuzukiRead