This is what I have heard. “Just as, monks, the River Ganges tends to the east, inclines to the east, slides to the east, in exactly the same way a monk who cultivates and makes much of the noble eightfold path tends to nibbana, inclines to nibbana, slides to nibbana. And how is it that a monk who cultivates and makes much of the noble eightfold path tends to nibbana, inclines to nibbana, slides to nibbana? Here, monks, he cultivates right view that has its basis in seclusion, in dispassion, in cessation, in release. He cultivates right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration that has its basis in seclusion, in dispassion, in cessation, in release. It is in this way that a monk who cultivates and makes much of the noble eightfold path tends to nibbana, inclines to nibbana, slides to nibbana.”

From Sayings of the Buddha: A Selection of Suttas from the Pali Nikayas, translated by Rupert Gethin, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 226-227.