For should a servant desire to make the words, deeds and actions of other servants, learned or ignorant, the standard for knowing God and His chosen ones, he shall never enter the Ridvan of the knowledge of the Lord of Might nor attain to the fountains of the knowledge and wisdom of the King of Oneness; neither shall he reach the bourne of immortality nor partake of the cup of nearness and good pleasure.
Approval Seeking
Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’í Scriptures, p. 3-4
. . . at all times seeking the approval of men is many times the cause of imperiling the approval of God.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Star of the West, June 24, 1915
Man must seek to gain the acceptance of God and not that of the different classes of men. If one is praised and chosen by God, the accusation of all the creatures will cause no loss to him; and if the man is not accepted in the threshold of God, the praise and admiration of all men will be of no use to him.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá v1, p. 158
The indifference and scorn of the world matters not at all, whereas your lives will be of the greatest importance.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 118
To be approved of God alone should be one's aim.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Star of the West, Vol. 6, No. 6, p. 44
Fully alive to the unfailing efficacy of the power of Bahá’u’lláh, and armed with the essential weapons of wise restraint and inflexible resolve, let him wage a constant fight against the inherited tendencies, the corruptive instincts, the fluctuating fashions, the false pretences of the society in which he lives and moves.
Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, p. 130
