Motivational Quotes

Action

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

- Aristotle

Best Quotes about Action

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

Galsworthy, John

Being stuck is a position few of us like. We want something new but cannot let go of the old -- old ideas, beliefs, habits, even thoughts. We are out of contact with our own genius. Sometimes we know we are stuck; sometimes we don't. In both cases we have to DO something.

Teekens, Inga

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

Saying, Zen

Existence was given us for action. Our worth is determined by the good deed we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel,

Magnin, Edgar F.

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

Schmidt, Helmut

Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.

Rowan, Carl

Anything you do can get you fired; this includes doing nothing.

As one acts and conducts himself, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.

Upanishads, Veda

10.

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.

Gaulle, Charles De

11.

Begin somewhere: you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.

Smith, Liz

12.

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

Rogers, Will

13.

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

Plutarch

14.

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

Hubbard, Kin

15.

Many have too much, but none enough.

Proverb, Danish

16.

Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.

Carlyle, Thomas

17.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.

Francis De Sales, St.

18.

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

19.

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

20.

The act is unjustifiable that either begs for a blessing, or, having succeeded gives no thanksgiving.

Quarles, Francis

21.

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

Sandburg, Carl

22.

Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.

23.

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

24.

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

Aristotle

25.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Grant, Heber J.

26.

Believe in boys and girls and men and women of a great tomorrow that what so ever the boy soweth the man shall reap.

27.

Better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed.

28.

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. [Matthew 7:12]

Bible

29.

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.

Proverb, Mexican

30.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

Hill, Napoleon

31.

Talk doesn't cook rice.

Proverb, Chinese

32.

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

Crow, Trammell

33.

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

Franklin, Benjamin

34.

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

Mother Teresa

35.

The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God.

Tolstoy, Count Leo

36.

Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Carlyle, Thomas

37.

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

38.

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.

Carrel, Alexis

39.

The only way you can bring in the harvest in the fall is to plant in the spring, and to water, weed, fertilize in the summer

40.

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

Bruyere, Jean De La

41.

Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars.

Curcio, Joan L.

42.

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.

Ching Ning Chu

43.

I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.

Lewis, Harvey Spencer

44.

A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.

Robbins, Anthony

45.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

46.

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

47.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

48.

Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others. If you lean, you will never be strong or original. Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world.

Marden, Orison Swett

49.

Action makes more fortune than caution.

Clapiers, Luc De

50.

This body, full of faults, has yet one great quality: Whatever it encounters in this temporal life depends upon one's actions.

Nagarjuna, Siddha