Action Quotes

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

I Ching

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to the end, requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Confucius

We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, New York Times Magazine, Nov. 26, 1978

In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

Pythagoras

A vision without action is called a daydream; but then again, action without a vision is called a nightmare.

Jim Sorensen

Enthusiasm... the sustaining power of all great action.

Samuel Smiles

We Americans know - Although others appear to forget - The risk of spreading conflict. We still seek no wider war. On ordering retaliatory action against North Vietnam.

Lyndon B. Johnson

All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes.

Cicero

Action is the last refuge of those who cannot dream.

Oscar Wilde

A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange... Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

Aristotle, Politics

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.

John Dewey

The good devout man first makes inner preparation for the actions he has later to perform. His outward actions do not draw him into lust and vice rather it is he who bends them into the shape of reason and right judgement. Who has a stiffer battle to fight than the man who is striving to conquer himself.

Thomas a Kempis

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do, Ohara Publications

My country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope.

Herbert Hoove

Become aware of internal, subjective subverbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc., with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hither unconscious and uncontrollable processes.

Abraham Harold Maslow

A decision is the action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.

Arthur W. Radford

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

Confucius

When action grows unprofitable, gather information when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

Ursula K. LeGuin

The Return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.

Francesco Guicciardini

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.

Lao Tzu

The self is not something ready - Made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

John Dewey

The anatomical juxtaposition of 2 orbicularis oris muscles in a state of contraction.

Dr. Henry Gibbons

Successful men are defined by thier actions; Unsuccessful men are defined by actions not taken.

Tom Rose

If our actions stem from honesty, kindness, caring, and vision, then no matter what the result of our efforts, we have added something of value to our souls and to the world.

Joan Boysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.

Demosthenes

A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else.

Andre Malraux

Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.

Mahatma Gandhi

Justice is the truth in action.

Jeseph Joubert

What used to be called liberal is now called radical, what used to be called radical is now called insane, what used to be called reactionary is now called moderate, and what used to be called insane is now called solid conservative thinking.

Tony Kushne

Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to enduring fact of mystery.

Henry Mille

Habits... the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction... You allow them to persist by not seeking any other, better form of satisfying the same needs. Every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way - By finding that it is a means of satisfaction.

Juliene Berk

People don? t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.

Chuck Palahniuk

I never add up. I only subtract from the total dying...... It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.

Mother Theresa

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

Napoleon Bonaparte

Any religion... is for ever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion.

T. S. Eliot

Eduaction is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde