436 quotes about Action



In this country men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.
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You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
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The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
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The greatest potential for control tends to exist at the point where action takes place.
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Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
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Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
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For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
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A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
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Effective action is always unjust.
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Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed.
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Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet more apt for contemplation.
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What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations... is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one's own efforts.
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Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.
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We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
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Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
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For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
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All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
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Well begun is half done.
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The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.
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Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
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Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.
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Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
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Begin -- to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
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It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!
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Most people of action are inclined to fatalism and most of thought believe in providence.
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It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.
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The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
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Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.
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Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.
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Action is the product of the qualities inherent in nature.
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Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. [Matthew 7:120]
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But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. [James 1:22]
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All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. [Matthew 7:12]
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All rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.
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You can't aim a duck to death.
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Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
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The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.
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It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
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Let your performance do the thinking.
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You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.
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Take action in order to move toward your goals.
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It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.
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Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
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Let us do or die.
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The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.
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Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.
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Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed.
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A good action is never lost; it is a treasure laid up and guarded for the doer's need.
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A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.
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Leap, and the net will appear.
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Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.
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Action hangs, as it were, dissolved in speech, in thoughts whereof speech is the shadow; and precipitates itself therefrom. The kind of speech in a man betokens the kind of action you will get from him.
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The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.
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Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.
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Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.
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Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
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No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.
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As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.
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Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.
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There is no use trying, said Alice; one can't believe impossible things. I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
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People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.
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Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.
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The person of intellect is lost unless they unite with energy of character. When we have the lantern of Diogenese we must also have his staff.
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Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
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In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist.
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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.
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It is not whether your words or actions are tough or gentle; it is the spirit behind your actions and words that announces your inner state.
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I never worry about action, but only inaction.
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We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.
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Action makes more fortune than caution.
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He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.
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A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action.. You must act as you breathe.
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When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.
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Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more.
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Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance.
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If you don't make things happen then things will happen to you.
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The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.
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The superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.
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Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and with what you are. He who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.
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We are born to action; and whatever is capable of suggesting and guiding action has power over us from the first.
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Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture.
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Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars.
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The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.
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