Story of a lazy tramp - Swami Vivekananda

Listen to an old story. A lazy tramp sauntering along the road saw an
old man sitting at the door of his house and stopped to inquire of him
the whereabouts of a certain place. 'How far is such and such a
village?' he asked. The old man remained silent. The man repeated his
query several times. Still there was no answer. Disgusted at this, the
traveler turned to go away. The old man then stood up and said, 'The
village of --- is only a mile from here.' 'What!' said the tramp. 'Why
did you not speak when I asked you before?' 'Because then,' said the
old man, 'you seemed so halting and careless about proceeding, but now
you are starting off in good earnest, and you have a right to an
answer.'

Will you remember this story, my son? Go to work, the rest will come:
'Whosoever not trusting in anything else but Me, rests on Me, I supply
him with everything he needs' (Gita 9.22). This is no dream.

From USA, 1894. Letter to Alasinga. Complete Works, 5: 60

strength is life, weakness is death

The weak have no place here, in this life or in any other life.
Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery,
physical and mental. Weakness is death. There are hundreds of
thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot harm us unless
we become weak, until the body is ready and predisposed to receive
them. There may be a million microbes of misery floating about us.
Never mind! They dare not approach us, they have no power to get a
hold on us, until the mind is weakened.This is the great fact:
strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life
eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery; weakness is
death.

P. 893 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

If a man truly believes that God alone does everything, that He is the
Operator and man the machine, then such a man is verily liberated in
life. 'Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.' Do you
know what it is like? Vedanta philosophy gives an illustration.
Suppose you are cooking rice in a pot, with potato, egg-plant, and
other vegetables. After a while the potatoes, eggplant, rice, and the
rest begin to jump about in the pot. They seem to say with pride: 'We
are moving! We are jumping!' The children see it and think the
potatoes, egg-plant, and rice are alive and so they jump that way. But
the elders, who know, explain to the children that the vegetables and
the rice are not alive; they jump not of themselves, but because of
the fire under the pot; if you remove the burning wood from the
hearth, then they will move no more. Likewise the pride of man, that
he is the doer, springs from ignorance. Men are powerful because of
the power of God. All becomes quiet when that burning wood is taken
away. The puppets dance well on the stage when pulled by a wire, but
they cannot move when the wire snaps.

Quote by Swami Vivekananda.

The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are
becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy, that may be dyspepsia, but it
is not religion. Misery is caused by sin, and by no other cause. What
business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a
clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room.
What right have you to carry this disease out into the world?

— Swami Vivekananda

Edgar Cayce Reading 2448-2

Know that a smile will rally many to thy cause, while a frown would
drive all away.

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-83

Count thy hardships, thy troubles, even thy disappointments, rather as
stepping-stones to know His way better.

Gems of Gospel of Holy Mother - P. 215

A monk must be free from anger and hatred, he must tolerate everything.

The Gospel of Strength

The only saint is that soul that never weakens and faces everything.

        All weakness, all bondage is imagination... Do not weaken!... Stand
up and be strong! That is all the religion I know.

        Know that all sins and all evils can be summed up in that one word,
weakness. It is weakness that is the motive power in all evil-doing;
it is weakness that is the source of all selfishness; it is weakness
that makes men injure others; it is weakness that makes them manifest
what they are not in reality.

The Gospel of Strength - Stop Becoming Weak! - Swami Vivekananda

Stop Becoming Weak!
Strength, strength, it is that we want so much in this life, for what
we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness.
With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.
Never be weak. You must be strong; you have infinite strength within
you.

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the
greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin--to
say that you are weak.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna P.863

Those actually engaged in a game of chess do not always judge the
moves on the board correctly. The onlookers often judge the moves
better than the players. Worldly people often think themselves very
intelligent, but they are attached to the things of the world. They
are the actual players and cannot understand their own moves
correctly. But holy men, who have renounced everything, are unattached
to the world; they are really more intelligent than worldly people.
Since they do not take any part in worldly life, their position is
that of onlookers, and so they see things more clearly.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3357-1

(Q) What is God's plan for me in assisting the furtherance of His
kingdom here on this planet, so that I may accomplish the greatest
good with whatever talents I may possess?
(A) Brighten the corner where thou art from day to day. Let not a day
go by without speaking to someone with the smile of the face and eye
reminding them that somebody cares, and it is Jesus!

Edgar Cayce Reading 1971-1

For the material, at best, is only temporal, or temporary, while that
which may be builded from spiritual desire, spiritual purposes, is
eternal.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1968-5

If the problems of the experience today, now, are taken as an
expectancy for the unusual and that which is to be creative and
hopeful and helpful, life becomes rather the creative song of the
joyous worker.
If the same problems become humdrum, something to be fought through,
something to be questioned as to their purpose, their activity, their
usefulness in the experience, then the life becomes rather as a drone,
as of one drudging, coming through toil, and with only turmoil and a
vision unclaimed, unactive in its associations with the general
conditions of the day.