“The quote checks out, and the childhood lesson fits the documented tradition.”
“Swami Vivekananda taught that truth should not be sacrificed, and a childhood lesson from his mother helped shape that commitment.”
The quotation appears in Volume 5 of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Biographical accounts published within the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition also recount that his mother advised him to follow truth after he described unjust treatment at school.
The post treats a remembered biographical anecdote and its precise dialogue as settled historical detail. Available support is mainly later tradition-based biography rather than independent contemporaneous documentation.
That sourcing limitation does not materially change the central message: Vivekananda is reliably associated with the quoted ideal of uncompromising truthfulness.
Why Clear says this
The central historical attribution is directly supported by Vivekananda’s collected sayings, while the childhood story is consistently reported in established biographies associated with his movement. The post does not make the anecdote carry a larger unsupported factual claim.
Evidence
- The line “Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything” is included in the “Sayings and Utterances” section of Vivekananda’s Complete Works.
- A biography by Swami Nikhilananda recounts that Narendra told his mother he had been unjustly treated at school and records her advice to follow truth despite consequences.
- A Ramakrishna-Vivekananda biographical account specifically describes the geography-teacher episode and connects the mother’s lesson and Ramakrishna’s influence to Vivekananda’s conduct.