action quotes

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

Action is the real measure of intelligence.

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

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

Never mistake motion for action.

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

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

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

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

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

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

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

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

What you don’t do can be a destructive force.

Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.

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

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

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

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

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

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

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

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.

Never confuse motion with action.

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

Action expresses priorities.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

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

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

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

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.

Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.

Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done; it’s just doing it.

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

Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

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.

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.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

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

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

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 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 most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

Well done is better than well said.

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

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.

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

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

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.