Motivational Quotes

Action

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

Best Quotes about Action

The ancestor of every action is thought.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The secret of getting things done is to act!

David, Benjamin O.

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

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Disney, Walt

A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.

Galsworthy, John

You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.

Holcomb, John H.

Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.

Iacocca, Lee

Don't think, just do.

Horton, Reiko

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.

Dyer, Wayne

10.

Everything is in motion. Everything flows. Everything is vibrating.

Dyer, Wayne

11.

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

James, William

12.

Keep your head and your heart going in the right direction and you will not have to worry about your feet.

13.

Talk doesn't cook rice.

Proverb, Chinese

14.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

Gracian, Baltasar

15.

Some people forget to plant in the spring, idle away the summer hours and then expect to reap in the fall.

16.

Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the path can substitute for putting one foot in front of the other.

Richards, Mary Caroline

17.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

Edison, Thomas A.

18.

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

19.

You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you fought.

Holmes, Marjorie

20.

Reactionary: A man walking backwards with his face to the future.

Bevan, Aneurin

21.

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

Proverb, German

22.

He who strikes first, strikes twice.

Proverb, Mexican

23.

Do not wait; the time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Hill, Napoleon

24.

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.

Calvin, John

25.

A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you're not enough without the medal, you'll never be enough with it.

Movie, Cool Runnings

26.

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

Sartre, Jean-Paul

27.

Big words seldom accompany good deeds.

Proverb, Danish

28.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

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

30.

Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.

Proverb, Chinese

31.

People say to me, You were a roaring success. How did you do it? I go back to what my parents taught me. Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make something happen.

Iacocca, Lee

32.

Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action for all eternity.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

33.

Effective action is always unjust.

Anouilh, Jean

34.

Like other revolutionaries I can thank God for the reactionaries. They clarify the issue.

Collingwood, Robin G.

35.

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

36.

The road of life can only reveal itself as it is traveled; each turn in the road reveals a surprise. Man's future is hidden.

37.

Action makes more fortune than caution.

Clapiers, Luc De

38.

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.

D'Alembert

39.

Every man of action has a strong dose of egoism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be regarded as high qualities if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.

Gaulle, Charles De

40.

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

41.

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

Bruyere, Jean De La

42.

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

Buffett, Warren

43.

The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.

Sandburg, Carl

44.

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

45.

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Keller, Helen

46.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

47.

What an elder sees sitting; the young can't see standing.

Proverb, Ibo

48.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

49.

We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.

Vivekananda, Swami

50.

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.