“He who is ever brooding over result often loses nerve in the performance of his duty. He becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy things; he jumps from action to action never remaining faithful to any. He who broods over results is like a man given to objects of senses; he is ever distracted, he says goodbye to all scruples, everything is right in his estimation and he therefore resorts to means fair and foul to attain his end.”
Share this quote
Probable attribution
This saying is widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, but the attribution is not supported by a reliable primary source.
Likely origin: Gandhi, 'The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi' (Anasaktiyoga commentary) — on how brooding over results destroys steadfast duty.
About this quote
Fixating on how things will turn out corrodes you two ways. It frays your nerve, so you grow impatient and snappish and abandon one effort for the next without seeing any through. And it loosens your scruples, until winning matters so much that almost any method starts to look acceptable.
When to use it
- An investor glued to every daily price swing panics, hops between strategies, and walks away from a sound long-term plan.
- A job seeker so anxious to land an offer starts padding the résumé and burns out halfway through the search.
- A student obsessed with the grade grows short-tempered, skips the actual learning, and is tempted to cheat on the test.