Motivational Quotes

Action

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

Best Quotes about Action

Before you can do something you must first be something.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Proverb, German

Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions.

Einstein, Albert

He who strikes first, strikes twice.

Proverb, Mexican

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

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

Levin, James

He who walks with the lame learns how to limp.

Proverb, Latin

Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do, if it were my last of life.

Edwards, Edward

The successful men of action are not sufficiently self-observant to know exactly on what their success depends.

Jacobs, Joseph

10.

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

Ross, Percy

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.

Don't look back, just keep on walking.

13.

I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.

Stone, W. Clement

14.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Berger, Sally

15.

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

16.

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

17.

What the mind attends to, the mind considers. What the mind constantly considers, the mind believes. What the mind believes, the mind eventually does.

18.

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

Holcomb, John H.

19.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive o all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Inge, Dean William R.

20.

Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

21.

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

22.

Like other revolutionaries I can thank God for the reactionaries. They clarify the issue.

Collingwood, Robin G.

23.

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

24.

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

25.

Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.

Heine, Heinrich

26.

He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.

Horace

27.

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

Croce, Benedetto

28.

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

Wanamaker, John

29.

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

30.

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

31.

Talk doesn't cook rice.

Proverb, Chinese

32.

Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars.

Curcio, Joan L.

33.

The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.

Iacocca, Lee

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Batt, Al

37.

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

Proverb, Italian

38.

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

39.

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

Hill, Napoleon

40.

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

41.

Act like you expect to get into the end zone.

Paterno, Joe

42.

I will act as if what I do makes a difference.

James, William

43.

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

Mother Teresa

44.

A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.

Robbins, Anthony

45.

Do it now! can affect every phase of your life. It can help you do the things you should do but don't feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments that, if lost, may never be retrieved.

Hill, Napoleon

46.

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

47.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

Saying, Zen

48.

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

49.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

50.

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

Wattles, Wallace D.