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.