Motivational Quotes

Action

The ancestor of every action is thought.

- Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Best Quotes about Action

Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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

Aurelius, Marcus

If you act like you know what you're doing, you can do anything you want -- except neurosurgery.

Lowenstein, John

Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

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

Mother Teresa

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.

Gandhi, Mahatma

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

In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist.

Char, Rene

You will never win if you never begin.

Schuller, Robert H.

10.

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.

Eliot, Sir John

11.

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

12.

Never mind your happiness; do your duty.

Durant, William J.

13.

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

14.

The secret of getting things done is to act!

David, Benjamin O.

15.

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

16.

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

Hazlitt, William

17.

The only way to start is to start.

18.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

Aristotle

19.

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

Eliot, George

20.

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

21.

The view only changes for the lead dog.

Sergeant Preston of The Yukon

22.

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

Proverb, German

23.

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

24.

You can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

25.

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

26.

Between eighteen and twenty, life is like an exchange where one buys stocks, not with money, but with actions. Most men buy nothing.

Malraux, Andre

27.

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

Bronowski, Jacob

28.

Leap, and the net will appear.

Cameron, Julie

29.

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

30.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

Rohn, Jim

31.

He who limps is still walking.

Lec, Stanislaw J.

32.

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

33.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

34.

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike you, do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

35.

Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is strong we are successful.

Wattles, Wallace D.

36.

I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.

Schuller, Robert H.

37.

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

Dyer, Wayne

38.

It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done.

Woolf, Virginia

39.

A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action.. You must act as you breathe.

Clemenceau, Georges

40.

No one will do it for you.

Stein, Ben

41.

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

42.

Backbone beats wishbone every time.

43.

What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations... is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one's own efforts.

Arendt, Hannah

44.

The search for the perfect venture can turn into procrastination. Your idea may or may not have merit. The key is to get started.

45.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often

46.

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

Aristotle

47.

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

Holtz, Lou

48.

So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.

Iacocca, Lee

49.

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

Gracian, Baltasar

50.

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