The original reason to start the project, which was that the Germans were a danger, started me off on a process of action, which was to try to develop this first system at Princeton and then at Los Alamos, to try to make the bomb work.

Iraq is a long way from the U.S., but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face.

Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.

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.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

You can’t try to do things; you simply must do them.

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

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

Act, and God will act.

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

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

Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.

The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one.

Over the years, people I’ve met have often asked me what I’m working on, and I’ve usually replied that the main thing was a book about Dresden.

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.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

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

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

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.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.

To a profound pessimist about life, being in danger is not depressing.

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.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.

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.

There is a danger that threatens everyone in the church, all of us. The danger of worldliness. It leads us to vanity, arrogance and pride.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

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

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

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.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.

There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.

When a country has the skill and self-confidence to take action against its biggest problems, it makes outsiders eager to be a part of it.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

If you like a person you say ‚let’s go into business together.‘ Man is a social animal after all, but such partnerships are fraught with danger.

If danger arises in the present moment, there may be an emotion. There may even be pain. But that’s a challenge, not a problem. For a problem to exist, you need time and repetitive mind activity.

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

The right man is the one who seizes the moment.