Motivational Quotes

Action

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

Best Quotes about Action

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

To talk goodness is not good... only to do it is.

Proverb, Chinese

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.

Robbins, Anthony

Action is the real measure of intelligence.

Hill, Napoleon

Let us be tried by our actions.

Motto

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

Aristotle

It's better to waste one's youth than to do nothing with it at all.

Courteline, Georges

The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Proverb, Chinese

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.

D'Alembert

10.

As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.

Lu Xun

11.

It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

Batt, Al

12.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

Thoreau, Henry David

13.

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

14.

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.

Landon, Michael

15.

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

16.

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.

17.

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

Marley, Bob

18.

It is better to rust out than wear out.

Whitefield, George

19.

Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself.

Proverb, Chinese

20.

Let your hook always be cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be a fish.

Ovid

21.

Ideas won't keep, something must be done about them.

Whitehead, Alfred North

22.

We will not know unless we begin.

Zinn, Howard

23.

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

Schuller, Robert H.

24.

Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.

Rowan, Carl

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Talk doesn't cook rice.

Proverb, Chinese

29.

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

30.

Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down.

Proverb

31.

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

32.

Some will, some don't, so what!

Proverb, American

33.

What you are will show in what you do.

Edison, Thomas A.

34.

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

35.

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

Grant, Heber J.

36.

The view only changes for the lead dog.

Sergeant Preston of The Yukon

37.

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

Balzac, Honore De

38.

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

Ziglar, Zig

39.

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

Quarles, Francis

40.

A good action is never lost; it is a treasure laid up and guarded for the doer's need.

Calderon de la Barca, Pedro

41.

If you don't make things happen then things will happen to you.

Company, Lanes

42.

You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree.

Morgan, John Pierpont

43.

A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you're not enough without the medal, you'll never be enough with it.

Movie, Cool Runnings

44.

Periods of tranquillity are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.

Whitehead, Alfred North

45.

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

Smiles, Samuel

46.

Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.

Garibaldi, Giuseppe

47.

The person of intellect is lost unless they unite with energy of character. When we have the lantern of Diogenese we must also have his staff.

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De

48.

For as one star another far exceeds, So souls in heaven are placed by their deeds.

Greene, Robert

49.

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

Wanamaker, John

50.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

Aristotle