Motivational Quotes

Action

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

- Carlyle, Thomas

Best Quotes about Action

It is following the line of least resistance that makes men and rivers crooked.

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

Roosevelt, Theodore

'Tis God gives skill, but not without men's hand: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius's violins without Antonio.

Eliot, George

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.

Caddy, Eileen

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

Hazlitt, William

All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us.

Einstein, Albert

Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.

Byrhhe, Anne

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

Graham, Martha

Action expresses priorities.

Garfield, Charles A.

10.

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.

Bushnell, Nolan

11.

All the reputedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Was not Hitler a paper tiger? Was Hitler not overthrown? U.S. imperialism has not yet been overthrown and it has the atomic bomb. I believe it also will be overthrown. It, too, is a paper tiger.

Zedong, Mao

12.

Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Buffett, Warren

13.

Action is the real measure of intelligence.

Hill, Napoleon

14.

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

Schmidt, Helmut

15.

Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do, if it were my last of life.

Edwards, Edward

16.

Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice.

Whittier, John Greenleaf

17.

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

Hammarskjold, Dag

18.

Act, if you like, but you do it at your peril. Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

19.

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

20.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last --but eat you he will.

Reagan, Ronald

21.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

Bruyere, Jean De La

22.

The greatest step is out the door.

Proverb, German

23.

It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said,what dust do I raise!

Bacon, Francis

24.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

James, William

25.

Doing leads more surely to talking than talking to doing.

Vinet

26.

We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race.

Einstein, Albert

27.

No rules for success will work if you don't.

28.

From small beginnings come great things.

Proverb, American

29.

Some people grin and bear it; others smile and do it.

30.

A man's action is only a picture book of his creed.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

32.

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

Kelland, Clarence Buddinton

33.

I like these words -- they seem to suggest action: If you hear a kind word spoken Of some worthy soul you know, It may fill his heart with sunshine If you'd only tell him so. If a deed, however humble, helps you On your way to go, Seek the one whose hand has helped you. Seek him out and tell him so. If your heart is touched and tender Towards sinner log and low, It might help him to do better If you could only tell him so.

34.

You won't skid if you stay in a rut.

Hubbard, Kin

35.

It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

Batt, Al

36.

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

Levin, James

37.

Doing is a quantum leap from imagining. Thinking about swimming isn't much like actually getting in the water. Actually getting in the water can take your breath away. The defense force inside of us wants us to be cautious, to stay away from anything as intense as a new kind of action. Its job is to protect us, and it categorically avoids anything resembling danger. But it's often wrong. Anything worth doing is worth doing too soon.

Sher, Barbara

38.

Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions.

Einstein, Albert

39.

Then indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute; What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

40.

Do it this very moment, Don't put it off, There's no use in doing a kindness, if you do it a day too late.

41.

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.

Robbins, Anthony

42.

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.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

43.

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.

Landon, Michael

44.

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.

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De

45.

What we need is to use what we have.

Walsh, Basil S.

46.

He who considers too much will perform little.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

47.

Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.

Garibaldi, Giuseppe

48.

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.

Conwell, Russel H.

49.

It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

Troward, Thomas

50.

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.

Cicero, Marcus T.