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.

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

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

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.

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

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

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

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

Here’s the thing. We do a movie with a predominantly black cast, and it’s put in a category of being a black film. When other movies are done with a predominantly white cast, we don’t call them a white film. I’m trying to remove the stigma off things they call black films.

After the 9/11 apocalypse happened in New York City, people, particularly New Yorkers, who breathed in the ash, or saw the results of that, have a tendency to keep seeing echoes and having flashbacks to it.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

‚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 started in action, and then I went to comedy school.

The squandering of oil and gas is associated with one of the greatest tragedies, not in the least resolved, which is suffered by humankind: climate change.

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, ‚Why god? Why me?‘ and the thundering voice of God answered, ‚There’s just something about you that pisses me off.‘

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

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

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

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

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

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.

Here at home, when Americans were standing in long lines to give blood after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we squandered an obvious opportunity to make service a noble cause again, and rekindle an American spirit of community.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.

It now appears that the way the universe began can indeed be determined, using imaginary time.

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

The effects of climate change are real and must be acted on.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

The devastating punch we took on September 11th still reverberates throughout American society.

The end is the beginning of all things, Suppressed and hidden, Awaiting to be released through the rhythm Of pain and pleasure.

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

There is always something infinitely mean about other people’s tragedies.

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.

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.

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

The study of Nature brings into a harmonious whole the questions of the Infinite, the Historic, and the Microscopic as part of the Great Creator’s work.

I said I would never wear my gold again because it would be insensitive and disrespectful to all the people who died and lost everything in Katrina.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

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

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

You can’t think; you just gotta do things.

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

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

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

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.

A lot of people ask me when I do a stunt, ‚Jackie, are you scared?‘ Of course I’m scared. I’m not Superman.

I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.