Motivational Quotes

Action

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

- Kushner, Rabbi Harold S.

Best Quotes about Action

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

James, William

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

Sandburg, Carl

Many have too much, but none enough.

Proverb, Danish

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt.

Cousins, Norman

Doing leads more surely to talking than talking to doing.

Vinet

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.

Do it now. Then it's done.

That spot of earth has special charms for me, in which a limited income produces happiness, and moderate wealth abundance.

Martial, Marcus Valerius

10.

He who considers too much will perform little.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

11.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

12.

I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Proverb, Chinese

13.

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

14.

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

Stevenson, Robert Louis

15.

Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk -- and to act.

Maltz, Maxwell

16.

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

Ennius, Quintus

17.

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you.

Maharshi, Ramana

18.

To begin, begin.

Zarlenga, Peter Nivio

19.

If your sword's too short, add to its length by taking one step forward.

20.

The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.

Smith, Sydney

21.

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

Plutarch

22.

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

23.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Taylor, Russell C.

24.

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

Clarke, James Freeman

25.

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

26.

Big words seldom accompany good deeds.

Proverb, Danish

27.

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

28.

There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.

Mother Teresa

29.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

Churchill, Winston

30.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

Pound, Ezra

31.

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

Hubbard, Kin

32.

Don't think, just do.

Horton, Reiko

33.

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.

Peale, Norman Vincent

34.

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

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

35.

Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.

Stone, W. Clement

36.

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

37.

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

Quarles, Francis

38.

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

39.

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

Holmes, Marjorie

40.

No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.

Fosdick, Harry Emerson

41.

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

Liter, James

42.

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

43.

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.

44.

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

Green, Dennis

45.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.

Cervantes, Miguel De

46.

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

Sartre, Jean-Paul

47.

Fertilizer does no good in a heap, but a little spread around works miracles all over.

Ross, Percy

48.

Those old faces, in Pasadena, California, and Tucson, Arizona, and Dallas, crumpling in hatred and fear at the mention of the United Nations or those liberals in government who constitute for them the fifth column of communism, yearn for an America that is as far from the society of the present as is the extended family system in village India.

Segal, Ronald

49.

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

Aristotle

50.

Action is character.