Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Excessive caution, fear of losing honor, and fear of loss often lead to the very dangers and losses one tries to avoid.
In plain terms
Being too careful or afraid of losing things usually causes you to lose them.
What can you take from it?
Fear and over-caution often cause the outcomes you dread.

Where it applies

  • risk taking
  • personal choices
  • leadership

Putting it to work

  • risk assessment
  • fear management

Questions to consider

  • What are you afraid to lose?
  • Is your caution helping or hurting?

Another view

Sometimes caution is necessary and not always counterproductive.

More from Swami Vivekananda

  1. This earth is higher than all the heavens; this is the greatest school in the universe.

    Permalink to quote #161
  2. This is no world. It is God Himself. In delusion we call it world.

    Permalink to quote #163
  3. There is to be found in every religion the manifestation of the struggle toward freedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unselfishness, which means ge…

    Permalink to quote #160

Related quotes

  1. The chief danger in life is taking too many precautions.

    Alfred AdlerAlfred Adler quote #7
  2. An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you Ef you don't watch out.

    James Whitcomb RileyJames Whitcomb Riley quote #4
  3. In avoiding the appearance of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyments.

    Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes quote #8