Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death.
The surrounding passage

Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already.

The work and its creator

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Creator: Traditional Buddhist verse
Nationality / cultural background: South Asian · early Buddhist tradition
Work / edition: 1881 translation

Translation: F. Max Müller · English

Historical public-domain text. Selected passage; line-end whitespace normalised. No generated quotation.

In the source: Chapter I. The Twin-Verses; paragraph 22 in the selected body section

Selected for the Brief on 12 Sep 2026. This date records our selection, rather than when the work was created.