quotations about action
It is so easy to do a dirty thing with self-satisfaction when it consists in abstaining from action.
LORD ACTON
letter to Mary Gladstone, June 1, 1880
All action presupposes an end.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Never confuse movement with action.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
attributed, Papa Hemingway
An inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Physics and Politics
When your actions don't line up with your words, it destroys any trust that you may have built.
JEFF CHARLES
"4 Tips For Protecting Your Online Reputation", Small Biz Trends, February 21, 2016
Actions are interesting to watch. I learn about the actors. Their movements are emblems of the tensions in this internal landscape, which their actions resolve. About-to-act is an interesting state to experience, because I am conscious of just those tensions. Acting itself feels fairly dull; it not only resolves, it obliterates those tensions from my consciousness. Acting is only interesting as it leads to new tensions that, irrelevantly, cause me to act again.
SAMUEL R. DELANY
Dhalgren
It is quite impossible to understand the character of a person from one action, however striking that action may be.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Your beliefs are inconsequential. Your actions are the mark of your character.
GRETCHEN KELLY
"When is it Okay Not to Respect Someone's Beliefs?", The Good Men Project, August 12, 2016
Our actions make the fragrance of our lives.... Would you smell of plums? Or Vinegar?
KIRBY LARSON
The Friendship Doll
Bad things happen when you act impulsively. Taking time to contemplate all the potential outcomes allows you to make informed decisions that have predictable outcomes. Taking risks is important, but they should always be calculated risks.
MARK KAELIN
"10 lessons from video gaming that have helped my career", Tech Republic, February 18, 2016
Contemplation must bring forth right action in order to permit further growth.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Stranger in a Strange Land
If they want to have a meaningful impact, your actions should be aligned with your words.
BRIAN HAMBURGER
"How long can advisers get away with not reporting cyber breaches?", Investment News, February 29, 2016
All men of action are dreamers.
JAMES HUNEKER
The Pathos of Distance
All of our actions have in their doing the seed of their undoing.
LOUISE ERDRICH
The Antelope Wife
Make your actions deliberate, not rushed and random.
STATE JOURNAL STAFF
"Leap Day offers extra time to focus on 'big-picture' -- use it wisely", The State Journal, February 29, 2016
Let your actions be the example of how you would like to be treated and treat others accordingly.
CRAIG JOSEPH
"A plea to the varsity protesters", News 24, March 2, 2016
A natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life
When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.
LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD
"Memory"
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
JOHN LOCKE
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
The only things in which we can be said to have any property are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison, they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken from us by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world. Our actions must clothe us with an immortality, loathsome or glorious; these are the only title-deeds of which we cannot be disinherited; they will have their full weight in the balance of eternity, when every thing else is as nothing; and their value will be confirmed and established by those two sure and sateless destroyers of all other things--Time and Death.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon