Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Swami VivekanandaRead
If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Money is valuable only when used for good; otherwise, it becomes a source of harm.
Swami Vivekananda emphasizes the ethical implications of wealth, suggesting that money gains significance only when it is utilized to help others. If it does not contribute to the betterment of society, it is regarded as a detrimental force, highlighting the importance of moral responsibility in the use of financial resources.
Themes
MoneyGoodValueWealthEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a charity event, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of using financial resources for helping those in need.
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
There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.
Nicolas ChamfortRead
Remember: no attachment should grow, no clinging should grow. They are all against your independence, your freedom, your individuality.
RajneeshRead
Tyranny will make an entire population into readers of poetry.
Joseph BrodskyRead
To be content means that you realize you contain what you seek.
Alan CohenRead
If we slide into a pattern of just thinking about today, we'll end up reacting to yesterday instead of shaping something more constructive in the world.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiRead
Instead of 'watching the thinker,' you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.
Eckhart TolleRead