Motivational Quotes

Action

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

Best Quotes about Action

How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?

Marley, Bob

Begin where you are; work where you are; the hour which you are now wasting, dreaming of some far off success may be crowded with grand possibilities.

Marden, Orison Swett

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.

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

When all is said the greatest action is to limit and isolate one's self.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Drucker, Peter F.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

Mencken, H. L.

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

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

Auerbach, Red

10.

Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

11.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Lincoln, Abraham

12.

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

13.

Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in.

Confucius

14.

Your difficulty and my difficulty and the difficulty of every individual who ever desired to achieve something worthwhile, comes in the movement.

Zarlenga, Peter Nivio

15.

The greatest step is out the door.

Proverb, German

16.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Disraeli, Benjamin

17.

You don't have to get it right the first time.

Sher, Barbara

18.

It isn't sufficient just to want -- you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

Rosen, Richard D.

19.

All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.

Einstein, Albert

20.

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

Bible

21.

One thought driven home is better than three left on base.

Liter, James

22.

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

Rogers, Will

23.

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

24.

If you want a trait, act as if you already have the trait.

James, William

25.

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.

Macdonald, George

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Sometimes something worth doing is worth overdoing.

Letterman, David

29.

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

30.

Be both the gardener and the rose.

31.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

Proverb, French

32.

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

33.

The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.

Proudhon, Pierre Joseph

34.

Now is the season for sailing; for already the chattering swallow is come and the pleasant west wind; the meadows bloom and the sea, tossed up with waves and rough blasts, has sunk to silence. Weigh thine anchors and unloose thy hawsers, O Mariner, and sail with all thy canvas set.

Tarentum, Leonidas of

35.

Talk doesn't cook rice.

Proverb, Chinese

36.

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

Proverb, Mexican

37.

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

Bible

38.

Big words seldom accompany good deeds.

Proverb, Danish

39.

Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.

Canfield, Jack

40.

We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice.

Pilgrim, Peace

41.

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

Crow, Trammell

42.

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

43.

If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.

Viscott, David

44.

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

Proverb, Ibo

45.

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

Croce, Benedetto

46.

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

Green, Dennis

47.

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.

Frieseke, Frederick (Carl)

48.

Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.

Rowan, Carl

49.

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

50.

What really matters is what you do with what you have.

Lord, Shirley