Motivational Quotes

Action

The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

- Hoffer, Eric

Best Quotes about Action

The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs

Proverb, Irish

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

Kelland, Clarence Buddinton

The common conception is that motivation leads to action, but the reverse is true -- action precedes motivation. You have to prime the pump and get the juice flowing, which motivates you to work on your goals. Getting momentum going is the most difficult part of the job, and often taking the first step is enough to prompt you to make the best of your day.

Mckain, Robert J.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, Action, Action, Action.

Plutarch

Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps, If you are not willing to move your feet.

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

10.

Fertilizer does no good in a heap, but a little spread around works miracles all over.

Ross, Percy

11.

If it were done when 'tis done, then t'were well. It were done quickly.

Shakespeare, William

12.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Eliot, George

13.

Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance.

Mandino, Og

14.

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.

Aurelius, Marcus

15.

Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

Shirley, James

16.

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.

Clemenceau, Georges

17.

No one will do it for you.

Stein, Ben

18.

An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.

Howells, William Dean

19.

One mustn't allow acting to be like stockbroker -- you must not take it just as a means of earning a living, to go down every day to do a job of work. The big thing is to combine punctuality, efficiency, good nature, obedience, intelligence, and concentration with an unawareness of what is going to happen next, thus keeping yourself available for excitement.

Gielgud, John

20.

Suit the action to the world, the world to the action, with this special observance, that you overstep not the modesty of nature.

Shakespeare, William

21.

Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.

Heine, Heinrich

22.

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

23.

Good things happen to those who hustle.

Noll, Chuck

24.

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

Lincoln, Abraham

25.

There's as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something.

Crow, Trammell

26.

The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.

Auerbach, Red

27.

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

Schuller, Robert H.

28.

If you want a thing done, go. If not, send. The shortest answer is doing.

Proverb, English

29.

Action is the product of the qualities inherent in nature.

Bhagavad Gita

30.

You can't aim a duck to death.

Boardman, Gael

31.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

Aristotle

32.

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

Whittier, John Greenleaf

33.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive o all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Inge, Dean William R.

34.

One of the best lessons children learn through video games is standing still will get them killed quicker than anything else.

Milea, Jinx

35.

Don't be a spectator, don't let life pass you by.

Holtz, Lou

36.

Have a bias toward action -- let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.

Thalheimer, Richard

37.

Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.

Rowan, Carl

38.

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

Proverb, German

39.

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand -- and melting like a snowflake.

Ray, Marie Beyon

40.

It is better to rust out than wear out.

Whitefield, George

41.

The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching.

Green, Dennis

42.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

43.

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

44.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.

Cervantes, Miguel De

45.

If you want to get along, go along.

Rayburn, Sam

46.

All human actions are equivalent... and all are on principle doomed to failure.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

47.

Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt.

Cousins, Norman

48.

That spot of earth has special charms for me, in which a limited income produces happiness, and moderate wealth abundance.

Martial, Marcus Valerius

49.

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Drucker, Peter F.

50.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

Pound, Ezra