"Human nature - the ordinary human nature, I mean - wants to see big material facts. The ordinary man cannot understand anything that is subtle...They understand and find pleasure in everything that is external. But in every society there is a section whose pleasures are not in the senses, but beyond, and who now and then catch glimpses of something higher than matter and struggle to reach it. And if we read the history of nations between the lines, we shall always find that the rise of a nation comes with an increase in the number of such men; and the fall begins when this pursuit after the Infinite, however vain Utilitarians may call it, has ceased. That is to say, the mainspring of the strength of every race lies in its spirituality, and the death of that race begins the day that spirituality wanes and materialism gains ground."

- Swami Vivekananda, "The Necessity of Religion" (June 7, 1896, Royal Institute of Painters, London), Jnana Yoga, Complete Works: Vol 2