Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
Great causes and little men go ill together.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ambitious goals are often undermined by those who lack vision or capability.
Jawaharlal Nehru's quote suggests a disconnect between significant ambitions or societal goals and the individuals who may pursue them. It implies that great causes require capable and visionary individuals, and when these grand objectives are taken on by those who are not equipped or motivated, the outcome is likely to be disappointing or ineffective.
Themes
Great CausesLittle MenAmbitionPotentialLeadership
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to motivate young leaders in a seminar about social change.
More from Jawaharlal Nehru
All quotes βIndia has known the innocence and insouciance of childhood, the passion and abandon of youth, and the ripe wisdom of maturity that comes from long experience of pain and pleasure; and over and over a gain she has renewed her childhood and youth and age
Jawaharlal NehruRead
Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
Similar quotes
Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.
Jose MartiRead
It was obvious that he was a man who marched through life to the rhythms of some drum I would never hear.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
Death, I need my little addiction to you. I need that tiny voice who, even as I rise from the sea, all woman, all there, says kill me, kill me.
Anne SextonRead
Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks.
Thomas SowellRead
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.
Bertrand RussellRead
Rulers do not like to admit that their power is restricted by any laws other than those of physics and biology. They never ascribe their failures and frustrations to the violation of economic law.
Ludwig Von MisesRead