A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.

I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie.

We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

Action is character.

Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around.

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn’t a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

Besides entertainment and action, I want to educate. You know, as a producer or director, we do have a responsibility to society.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

Even though you are on the right track – you will get run over if you just sit there.

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

Meditation is not to avoid society; it is to look deep to have the kind of insight you need to take action. To think that it is just to sit down and enjoy the calm and peace, is wrong.

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.

If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, ‚What should I do?‘ And I say: ‚Act. Do something.‘ Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression.

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can’t do anything with that except do it.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

‚Speed‘ and ‚Point Break‘ were a lot of running and jumping, and then ‚The Matrix Trilogy‘ had a lot of fights and wire work and green screen elements.

I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

Justice is truth in action.

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

Act, and God will act.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

I just felt that if I went into Speed 2, I just… wouldn’t have come up out of the water.

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.