NO GOOD WILL COME OF SITTING IDLE AND HAVING PRINCELY DISHES, AND SAYING " Ramakrishna, O Lord!" - UNLESS YOU CAN DO SOME GOOD TO THE POOR

Go from door to door amongst the poor and lower classes of the town of Khetri and teach them religion. Also, let them have oral lessons on geography and such other subjects. No good will come of sitting idle and having princely dishes, and saying "Ramakrishna..., O Lord!" — unless you can do some good to the poor. Go to other villages from time to time, and teach the people the arts of life as well as religion. Work, worship, and Jnana (knowledge) — first work, and your mind will be purified; otherwise everything will be fruitless like pouring oblations on a pile of ashes instead of in the sacred fire.

- Swami Vivekananda
(March or April?) 1894. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Epistles - Second Series/LV Akhandananda

GIVING UP ALL ATTACHMENT TO WORK, ALWAYS SATISIFED, NOT HOPING FOR GAIN, THE WISE MAN ACTS AND IS BEYOND ACTION

"He whose efforts are bereft of all desire and selfishness has burnt all this bondage of action with the fire of knowledge. He is wise." Reading books cannot do that. The ass can be burdened with the whole library; that does not make him learned at all. What is the use of reading many books? "Giving up all attachment to work, always satisfied, not hoping for gain, the wise man acts and is beyond action."

- Swami Vivekananda
(Delivered in San Francisco, on May 29, 1900)
 The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita III