Motivational Quotes

Action

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

Best Quotes about Action

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

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

Gaulle, Charles De

You have to be before you can do, and do before you can have.

Ziglar, Zig

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.

Hugo, Victor

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

Heaven never helps the men who will not act.

Sophocles

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

Just as a flower which seems beautiful and has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of the man who speaks them but does them not.

Dhammapada

When deeds speak, words are nothing.

Proverb, African

10.

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.

Clarke, James Freeman

11.

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

12.

Men do not value a good deed unless it brings a reward.

Ovid

13.

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.

14.

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

15.

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

Crow, Trammell

16.

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

17.

There is no use trying, said Alice; one can't believe impossible things. I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Carroll, Lewis

18.

If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen.

Dimaggio, Joe

19.

What we need is to use what we have.

Walsh, Basil S.

20.

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

Nin, Anais

21.

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

Proverb, English

22.

The ancestor of every action is thought.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

No sooner said than done -- so acts your man of worth.

Ennius, Quintus

24.

Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

25.

If you think about it seriously, all the questions about the soul and the immortality of the soul and paradise and hell are at bottom only a way of seeing this very simple fact: that every action of ours is passed on to others according to its value, of good or evil, it passes from father to son, from one generation to the next, in a perpetual movement.

Gramsci, Antonio

26.

The view only changes for the lead dog.

Sergeant Preston of The Yukon

27.

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.

Pauling, Linus

28.

Two-thirds of promotion is motion

29.

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

Holcomb, John H.

30.

Backbone beats wishbone every time.

31.

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

Lowenstein, John

32.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

33.

Some will, some don't, so what!

Proverb, American

34.

He who limps is still walking.

Lec, Stanislaw J.

35.

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

36.

Doing leads more surely to talking than talking to doing.

Vinet

37.

The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.

Smiles, Samuel

38.

It's no good agreeing with a person who can't make up his mind.

39.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. [James 1:22]

Bible

40.

Doing nothing is the most tiresome job in the world because you cannot quit and rest.

41.

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

42.

One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.

Wanamaker, John

43.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

44.

Next in importance to having a good aim is to recognize when to pull the trigger.

Letterman, Elmer G.

45.

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

46.

Most people of action are inclined to fatalism and most of thought believe in providence.

Balzac, Honore De

47.

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

Hill, Napoleon

48.

He who walks with the lame learns how to limp.

Proverb, Latin

49.

Our deeds disguise us. People need endless time to try on their deeds, until each knows the proper deeds for him to do. But every day, every hour, rushes by. There is no time.

Long, Haniel

50.

Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture.

Croce, Benedetto