Action Quotes
The individual activity of
one man with backbone will do more than a thousand men with a mere
wishbone. -William J.H. Boetcker
A little consideration of
what takes place around us every day would show us that a higher law
than that of our will regulates events; that only in our easy, simple
spontaneous action are we strong, and by contenting ourselves with
obedience we become divine. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
The sweaty players in the
game of life always have more fun than the supercilious spectators.
-William Feather
Up, sluggard, and waste not
life; in the grave will be sleeping enough. -Benjamin Franklin
Pleasure and pain are the
only springs of action in man, and always will be. -Claude-Adrien
Helvetius
The world is moving so fast
these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally
interrupted by someone doing it. -Elbert Hubbard
Sorrow is the mere rust of
the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it. -Samuel Johnson
You cannot antagonize and
influence at the same time. -J.S. Knox
We like to think it is
enough if we keep our own lives straight. Quite plainly it is not. If
we talk cynically or encourage a lowering of standards, even though we
still control our own actions, we become responsible for the failure of
those who, weakened by our influence, fail to stand upright. -George
P.T. Sargent
A race preserves its vigor
so long as it harbors a real contrast between what has been and what
may be; and so long as it is nerved by the vigor to adventure beyond
the safeties of the past. Without adventure civilization is in full
decay. -Alfred North Whitehead
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it! -Jonathan Winters
To wait for someone else, or to expect someone else to make my
life richer, or fuller, or more satisfying, puts me in a
constant state of suspension. -Kathleen Tierney Andrus
Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds
will suffice. -John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage
to succeed. -David Viscott
Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action
is nobler in itself than either thought or theory. -William
Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Some people grin and bear it; others smile and do it. -Unknown
Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps, If you are not
willing to move your feet. -Unknown
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw
off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the
trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair. -Lord
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
I think there is something, more important than believing:
Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who
will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize
their vision. -W. Clement Stone (1902-2002)
Don't wait for your ship to come in, and feel angry and cheated
when it doesn't. Get going with something small. -Irene Kassorla
Begin somewhere: you cannot build a reputation on what you
intend to do. -Elizabeth Smith
Life is too short to waste. Dreams are fulfilled only through
action, not through endless planning to take action. -David J.
Schwartz
It is impossible to walk rapidly and be unhappy." -Dr. Howard
Murphy
Can anything be sadder than work unfinished? Yes! Work never
begun. -Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become
an oyster. -Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
The chief condition on which life, health and vigor depend, is
action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties,
increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its
destiny. -Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865)
Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of
contemplation than a great author. There are but two things
worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to
write what is worthy of being read. -Albert Pike (1809-1891)
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace
will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will
blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
-John Muir (1838-1914)
There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting
point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's
house. That says enough. -Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want
to know what people believe, don't read what they write, don't
ask them what they believe, just observe what they do. -Ashley
Montagu (1905-1999)
Begin where you are; work where you are; the hour which you are
now wasting, dreaming of some far off success may be crowded
with grand possibilities. -Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924)
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I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I
will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the
words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action
which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my
eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform
every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will
repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where
failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I
will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved
for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day
when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act
now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed
to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the
place. I am the person. -Og Mandino (1923-1996)
It is the man who is waiting for his ship to come in that is
always missing the boat. -Unknown
Existence was given us for action. Our worth is determined by
the good deed we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel.
-Edgar F. Magnin
All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than one
lovely action. -James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
It had long since come to my attention that people of
accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them.
They went out and made things happen. -Elinor Smith
The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason
so many good minds are idle. -Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799)
Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something,
perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of
anyone stumbling on something sitting down. -Charles F.
Kettering (1876-1958)
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a
thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom
generates action. -Frank Tibolt
Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go
together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more
direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the
feeling, which is not. -William James (1842-1910)
The discipline of writing something down is the first step
toward making it happen. -Lee Iacocca
People say to me, ''You were a roaring success. How did you do
it?'' I go back to what my parents taught me. Apply yourself.
Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something.
Don't just stand there, make something happen. -Lee Iacocca
You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you
fought. -Marjorie Holmes
The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be
employed. Idleness is its rust. -Thomas Traherne (1636-1674)
Mark this well, you proud men of action! You are, after all,
nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.
-Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)
No rules for success will work if you don't. -Unknown
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we
stand, as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of
heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes
against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is
translated through you into action, and as there is only one of
you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The
world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how
good it is, not how it compares with other forms of expression.
It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to
keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in
yourself or your work. You have to keep open and be aware
directly of the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.
No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any
time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed
unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the
others. -Martha Graham (1894-1991)
How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but
only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know
what is in thee. -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.
-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No
Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled.
No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated and
disciplined. -Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969)
Logic will not change an emotion, but action will. -Unknown
We are always getting ready to live, but never living. -Ralph
Waldo Emerson
Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.
-Carl Rowan
Forget past mistakes and forget failures. Forget everything
except what you are going to do now and do it. -William J.
Durant (1885-1981)
People sitting on top of the world, usually arrived there
standing up. -Unknown
For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into
act? -Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you
advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing
clearness on your path. -Jean-le-Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783)
Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again,
remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must
begin where you are and with what you are. He who would be great
anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia. -Russel H.
Conwell (1843-1925)
Some people are benevolent; others are beneficent. The first are
well-wishing; the second are well-doing. -Unknown
Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of
inertia. -Dr. Alexis Carrel (1873-1944)
One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time. -John
Wanamaker (1838-1922)
The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing
something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas,
but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not
tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a
doer, not a dreamer. -Nolan Bushnell
Ideas won't keep, something must be done about them. -Alfred
North Whitehead (1861-1947)
It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with
tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if
they cannot find it. -Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)
You have to "be" before you can "do," and do before you can
"have." -Zig Ziglar
Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly
lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid
adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country,
to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many
a battle. -Annie Besant (1847-1933)
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