The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

You may pray to everyone that was ever born, but who will come to
help you?... Help thyself out by thyself. None else can help thee,
friend... Get hold of the Self, then. Stand up. Don't be afraid. In
the midst of all miseries and all weakness, let the Self come out,
faint and imperceptible though it be at first.

The one great question asked by Vedanta is: why are people so afraid?
The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependant on
others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything for ourselves.
We want a personal god, a saviour or a prophet to do everything for
us... If everything is done for a man by another he will lose the use
of his own limbs. Anything we do ourselves, that is the only thing we
do. Anything that is done by another never can be ours... All this
running after help is foolishness.

You know, there are bullock carts... sometimes a sheaf of straw is
dangled at the tip of the pole, a little in front of the bulls but
beyond their reach. The bulls try continually to feed upon the straw,
but never succeed. That is exactly how we are helped! We think we are
going to get security, strength, wisdom, happiness from the outside.
We always hope but never realize our hope. Never does any help come
from the outside.