Quotes about Action

Most popular action quotes

People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something and those who sit still and inquire, "Why wasn't it done the other way?" - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quote.
People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something and those who sit still and inquire, "Why wasn't it done the other way?"

human nature

Conduct is more convincing than language. - John Woolman quote.
Conduct is more convincing than language.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see. - Henry David Thoreau quote.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

persuasion

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. - Oliver Goldsmith quote.
You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

morals

Action in the face of uncertainty is essential to creation.
Jonathan Fields Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

uncertainty

You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be. - Elizabeth Gilbert quote.
You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be.

work

Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe. - Mitch Albom quote.
Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.

beliefs

We are what we repeatedly do. - Aristotle quote.
We are what we repeatedly do.

habit

Amazing how many hours slip by while planning how to use your time!

time planning

Do what you think is right. Think about what you think is right, and once you've thought about it then do it! - Terence McKenna quote.
Do what you think is right. Think about what you think is right, and once you've thought about it then do it!

right and wrong

God gives every bird his worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.
— Swedish proverb

Swedish proverbs hard work proverbs

Let they that would move the world first move themselves. - Socrates quote.
Let they that would move the world first move themselves.

change the world

Virtue consists in action.
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. - Henry Ford quote.
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Go and wake up your luck.

luck

The ancestor of every action is a thought. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
The ancestor of every action is a thought.

thoughts

Fine words butter no parsnips.

English proverbs proverbs

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
— The Bible: Matthew 7:7

seeking biblical asking

Wishes won't wash dishes.
Few wishes come true by themselves.
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the action stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. - Anaïs Nin quote.
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the action stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

dreams

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning. - Igor Stravinsky quote.
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.

work inspiration

Action is eloquence. - William Shakespeare quote.
Action is eloquence.

eloquence

The great end of life is not knowledge but action. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
Well done is better than well said. - Benjamin Franklin quote.
Well done is better than well said.
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. - Andrew Carnegie quote.
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

deeds

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. - John Wooden quote.
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
What you do may not seem important, but it is very important that you do it. - Mahatma Gandhi quote.
What you do may not seem important, but it is very important that you do it.
The way to do is to be. - Lao Tzu quote.
The way to do is to be.
To do is to be. - Socrates quote.
To do is to be.
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. - Socrates quote.
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

proverbs fame

Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up. - Henry David Thoreau quote.
Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up.
You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well hammered yourself. - George Bernard Shaw quote.
You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well hammered yourself.

education

However many holy words you read, how many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them? - Gautama Buddha quote.
However many holy words you read, how many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?

religion

True strength is the flower of Wisdom, but its seed is action.

wisdom Strength

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river. - H. Ross Perot quote.
The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.

Activism environment

The future depends on what we do in the present. - Mahatma Gandhi quote.
The future depends on what we do in the present.

future motivational today

To be is to do. - Plato quote.
To be is to do.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers quote.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Goals are dreams with deadlines.

dreams goals

The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act.

luck

Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.
Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl. - Nellie McClung quote.
Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl.

how to live life motivational

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.

effort

Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. - Abraham Lincoln quote.
Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred. - Abraham Lincoln quote.
He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.

war bravery

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. - Abraham Lincoln quote.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

responsibility wisdom

We'd never get anything fixed to suit us if we waited for things to suit us before we started. - Laura Ingalls Wilder quote.
We'd never get anything fixed to suit us if we waited for things to suit us before we started.
A body makes his own luck, be it good or bad. - Laura Ingalls Wilder quote.
A body makes his own luck, be it good or bad.
We must ask questions and find answers that will help us to avoid dissolving into the merciless maw of history. - Maya Angelou quote.
We must ask questions and find answers that will help us to avoid dissolving into the merciless maw of history.
Nothing will work unless you do. - Maya Angelou quote.
Nothing will work unless you do.

motivational

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. You shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. - Maya Angelou quote.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. You shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. - Muhammad Ali quote.
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.

dreams success

Intention is not enough. It's not enough for our brothers and sisters who are most in need, the victims of injustice and exclusion, those whom "the interior of our hearts" doesn't help in their need. It's not even enough for ourselves. - Pope Francis quote.
Intention is not enough. It's not enough for our brothers and sisters who are most in need, the victims of injustice and exclusion, those whom "the interior of our hearts" doesn't help in their need. It's not even enough for ourselves.
Pope Francis Annual Message to Educational Communities, Easter 2002
Some people say to me, "But, Father, politicians aren't doing anything either!" But what are you doing? If you aren't doing anything, then scream [about yourself]! - Pope Francis quote.
Some people say to me, "But, Father, politicians aren't doing anything either!" But what are you doing? If you aren't doing anything, then scream [about yourself]!

politicians

Let me be clear: "take your time" isn't the same as "just let it be." - Pope Francis quote.
Let me be clear: "take your time" isn't the same as "just let it be."

time

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. - Peter Drucker quote.
Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

thinking management

We don't know who we are until we see what we can do.

know yourself

Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take many small steps.

hard work

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

character

Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom. - Thomas Carlyle quote.
Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it. - Seneca quote.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

morals crime

There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. - Edmund Burke quote.
There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

virtue patience tolerance

More good things in life are lost by indifference than ever were lost by active hostility.

apathy morals

Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.

morals apathy

Love me or hate me, but spare me your indifference.

apathy morals

I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate—it's apathy. - Leo Buscaglia quote.
I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate—it's apathy.

morals apathy

It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men have something worth fighting for, they do not feel like fighting. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men have something worth fighting for, they do not feel like fighting.

morals apathy

There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference.

apathy morals

Trust in God and do something. - Mary Lyon quote.
Trust in God and do something.
Action may not always be happiness, but there is no happiness without action. - Benjamin Disraeli quote.
Action may not always be happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

happiness

There is a close correlation between getting up in the morning and getting up in the world.

success laziness

My view is that to sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate. - John H. Glenn, Jr. quote.
My view is that to sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.

fate self-determination

People judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so has a hard-boiled egg.
— Good Reading magazine
Let him that would move the world, first move himself. - Socrates quote.
Let him that would move the world, first move himself.

change the world

All glory comes from daring to begin.

success

Everything comes to he who hustles while he waits. - Thomas Edison quote.
Everything comes to he who hustles while he waits.
You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.
Swing hard, in case they throw the ball where you're swinging.

luck funny

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

life

Success is a ladder that cannot be climbed with your hands in your pockets.
— American proverb

proverbs American proverbs success

Have you considered that if you "don't make waves," nobody, including yourself, will know that you are alive?
Many a man with no family tree has succeeded because he branched out for himself.
Ask God's blessing on your work, but don't ask him to do it for you.
It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action.
Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect. - Leonardo da Vinci quote.
Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it! - Jonathan Winters quote.
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!
Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

fate character habit

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. - Milton Berle quote.
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

opportunity

Life is always walking up to us and saying, "Come on in, the living's fine," and what do we do? Back off and take its picture. - Russell Baker quote.
Life is always walking up to us and saying, "Come on in, the living's fine," and what do we do? Back off and take its picture.

life

Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along. - Hugh Allen quote.
Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along.

opportunity

What isn't tried won't work. - Claude Maxwell MacDonald quote.
What isn't tried won't work.

effort

He who hesitates is last.
— The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West edited by Joseph Weintraub

hesitation

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel quote.
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.

decision-making management

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. - John Henry Newman quote.
A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.

perfection

It's better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to agonize at length and be right too late.

risk-taking decision-making hesitation be bold

If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.
A mistake proves that someone stopped talking long enough to do something.

mistakes

The best preparation for work is not thinking about work, talking about work, or studying for work: it is work.

hard work

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. - Harriet Beecher Stoew quote.
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

tears communication

Fools live to regret their words, wise men to regret their silence.

silence wisdom

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience. - Hyman Rickover quote.
Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.

ideas

There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen.

judgment

How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.

fate

My actions are my only true belongings. - Thích Nhất Hạnh quote.
My actions are my only true belongings.

buddhist

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. - G. K. Chesterton quote.
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.

fate

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

right and wrong

A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends. - George Washington quote.
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.

friendship

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. - Wayne Gretzky quote.
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.

effort

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement. - Alfred Adler quote.
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
Teachers open doors, but you must enter by yourself.

Zen sayings proverbs

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin quote.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

writing

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. - John Stuart Mill quote.
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

accountability morals inaction evil

Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the 'ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome'. You must be willing to fire. - T. Boone Pickens quote.
Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the 'ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome'. You must be willing to fire.

decision-making

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quote.
The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.

school

One must act in painting as in life, directly. - Pablo Picasso quote.
One must act in painting as in life, directly.

art

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do. - Arthur Schopenhauer quote.
It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.
No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection. - Marquis de Vauvenargues quote.
No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection.
An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation. - Joseph Conard quote.
An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.

artists

It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic. - Winston Churchill quote.
It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence. - William Blake quote.
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
A man who has to be convinced to act before he acts is not a man of action. You must act as you breathe. - Georges Clemenceau quote.
A man who has to be convinced to act before he acts is not a man of action. You must act as you breathe.
It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect. - Robert Louis Stevenson quote.
It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.
No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.
Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
— James 1:22

biblical

We have petitioned, and. our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been. disregarded. We have begged, and they have mocked us. We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them! - William Jennings Bryan quote.
We have petitioned, and. our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been. disregarded. We have begged, and they have mocked us. We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them!
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. - Charles Warner quote.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. - John Locke quote.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
John Locke An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. - H. L. Mencken quote.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
Don't just do something – Stand there! - Daniel Berrigan quote.
Don't just do something – Stand there!
Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind. - F. Scott Fitzgerald quote.
Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.

genius

Talk without effort is nothing.
Violence of language leads to violence of action. Angry men seldom fight if their tongues do not lead the fray.

language

Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.

future

Always behave like a duck—keep calm and unruffled on the surface, but paddle like the devil underneath.

hard work career

If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem. - Eldridge Cleaver quote.
If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.
He who waits for a roast duck to fly into his mouth must wait a very, very long time.
— Chinese proverb

Chinese proverbs proverbs

Your food is close to your stomach, but you must put it in your mouth first.
— African proverb

proverbs African proverbs

When the snake is in the house, one need not discuss the matter of length.
— African proverb

African proverbs proverbs

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.

competition mistakes effort

The world is divided into people who do things - and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There's far less competition.
God helps those who help themselves. - Aesop quote.
God helps those who help themselves.
Nothing is achieved in a dream.
— African proverb

proverbs African proverbs

Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!

thinking

Remember, nothing that's good works by itself just to please you. You've got to make the damn thing work. - Thomas Edison quote.
Remember, nothing that's good works by itself just to please you. You've got to make the damn thing work.

technology

DO IT NOW!

Why don't you stop
pursuing things,
and rushing round
and doing things?
Just think of all
the things that you
would suddenly
find time to do!
There is only one proof of ability—action. - Marie von Eschenbach quote.
There is only one proof of ability—action.

ability

Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul. - Edward Abbey quote.
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

writing

As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe the only antidote for melancholia is action.  However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth. - Edward Abbey quote.
As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe the only antidote for melancholia is action.  However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth.

melancholy

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. - Abigail Adams quote.
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Action is indeed the sole medium of expression for ethics. - Jane Addams quote.
Action is indeed the sole medium of expression for ethics.
Action is only coarsened thought. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel quote.
Action is only coarsened thought.
Thought is sad without action, and action is sad without thought. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel quote.
Thought is sad without action, and action is sad without thought.
In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action. - Aristotle quote.
In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.
Action is the antidote to despair. - Joan Baez quote.
Action is the antidote to despair.
A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all. - Georges Bernanos quote.
A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote.
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

responsibility

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.  The hand is more important than the eye. - Jacob Bronowski quote.
The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.  The hand is more important than the eye.
A good action is never lost; it is a treasure laid up and guarded for the doer's need. - Pedro la Barca quote.
A good action is never lost; it is a treasure laid up and guarded for the doer's need.
Be careful how you live your life, it is the only Gospel many people will ever read.

example

Every action of your life touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
Action is the language of the body and should harmonize with the spirit within. - Cicero quote.
Action is the language of the body and should harmonize with the spirit within.

be yourself authenticity

Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or glorious. - C. C. Colton quote.
Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or glorious.
The result of a single action may spread like the circles that expand when a stone is thrown into a pond, until they touch places and people unguessed at by the person who threw the stone. - Robertson Davies quote.
The result of a single action may spread like the circles that expand when a stone is thrown into a pond, until they touch places and people unguessed at by the person who threw the stone.
I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. - Dorothy Day quote.
I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. - John Dewey quote.
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

the self

An action is the perfection and publication of thought. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
An action is the perfection and publication of thought.
A man's action is only a picture-book of his creed. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
A man's action is only a picture-book of his creed.
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. - Friedrich Engels quote.
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
All of our actions have in their doing the seed of their undoing. - Louise Erdrich quote.
All of our actions have in their doing the seed of their undoing.
Action is character. - F. Scott Fitzgerald quote.
Action is character.
Acting without thinking is like shooting without aiming. - B. C. Forbes quote.
Acting without thinking is like shooting without aiming.
B. C. Forbes Forbes Epigrams: Or 1,000 Thoughts on Life
Action is the proper fruit of knowledge.

proverbs knowledge

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle. - Kahlil Gibran quote.
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

knowledge

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action. - Dag Hammarskjold quote.
In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers. - Learned Hand quote.
Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.

life answers

Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.
Our acts make or mar us; we are the children of our own deeds. - Victor Hugo quote.
Our acts make or mar us; we are the children of our own deeds.
No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.  With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved. - William James quote.
No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.  With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved.
The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention. - Patti LaBelle quote.
The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention.

deeds intention

Each act is an island in time, to be judged on its own.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. - James Russell Lowell quote.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
Action is thought made visible. - Orison Swett Marden quote.
Action is thought made visible.
Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one?  I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret. - Mary McCarthy quote.
Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one?  I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.
Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time. - Malcolm Muggeridge quote.
Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time.

retirement

For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out. - Theodore Roosevelt quote.
For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.

striving

Moral action is the meeting-place between the human and the divine.
Leon Roth Jewish Thought as a Factor in Civilization
Every act alters the soul of the doer.
From thinking proceeds speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! - George Washington quote.
From thinking proceeds speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous!
Thought and theory must precede all action that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory. - William Wordsworth quote.
Thought and theory must precede all action that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.
Words and thoughts concerning compassionate action that are not put into practice are like beautiful flowers that are colorful but have no fragrance. - Thích Nhất Hạnh quote.
Words and thoughts concerning compassionate action that are not put into practice are like beautiful flowers that are colorful but have no fragrance.
The most effective way to do it, is to do it. - Toni Cade Barbara quote.
The most effective way to do it, is to do it.
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings. - Pearl Buck quote.
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
What we do is never as important as how we do it.
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. - William Shakespeare quote.
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.  Sometime we must interfere. - Elie Wiesel quote.
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.  Sometime we must interfere.

suffering humiliation

It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation.  Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, "Wait on time." - Martin Luther King Jr. quote.
It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation.  Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, "Wait on time."

repentance apathy

If you wait for inspiration or that thing to hit you, you're dead.  Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action.

inspiration

You can't always sit around and wait for inspiration to strike.  Amateurs wait for inspiration. The real pros get up and go to work.

work motivational inspiration

Never mistake motion for action. - Ernest Hemingway quote.
Never mistake motion for action.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke quote.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

good and evil

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? - Gautama Buddha quote.
However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it's the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past.

fortune

The chief condition on which life, health, and vigour depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny. - Colin Powell quote.
The chief condition on which life, health, and vigour depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.
All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope? - Immanuel Kant quote.
All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

hope learning

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true. - Edgar Allan Poe quote.
The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

hope

Action is the real measure of intelligence. - Napoleon Hill quote.
Action is the real measure of intelligence.

intelligence

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain. - Carl Jung quote.
Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.

intelligence

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage. - Confucius quote.
Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.
The Essence of Knowledge is, having it, to use it. - Confucius quote.
The Essence of Knowledge is, having it, to use it.

knowledge

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. - Confucius quote.
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
You will never know how sharp a sword is unless it's drawn from its sheath. - Confucius quote.
You will never know how sharp a sword is unless it's drawn from its sheath.
Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction. - Jawaharlal Nehru quote.
Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them. - Jawaharlal Nehru quote.
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.

human nature

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. - Frederick Douglass quote.
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

prayer

Action is the foundational key to all success. - Pablo Picasso quote.
Action is the foundational key to all success.

success

If you want to achieve things in life, you've just got to do them, and if you're talented and smart, you'll succeed.

success

Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.

time wasting time

Nature gave men two ends—one to sit on and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most.
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail. - Ramakrishna quote.
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
Wish for nothing so much that you forget to make it come true.

wish

Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty. - Thomas Sowell quote.
Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.

talking