quotations about action
The man of action is not the headstrong fool who rushes into danger with no thought for himself, but the man who puts into practice the things he knows.
CESARE PAVESE
This Business of Living, Sep. 19, 1938
To act is to anchor in the imminent future.
EMIL CIORAN
History & Utopia
So many of man's actions appear to have no immediate consequence but, concealed, do their work until finally all catches up and forms a complex web of cause and effect.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
The views of men can only be known, or guessed at, by their words or actions.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Patrick Henry, Jan. 15, 1799
Action is but coarsened thought; thought become concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL
Journal Intime
Action is character.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Notes for The Last Tycoon
It is so easy to do a dirty thing with self-satisfaction when it consists in abstaining from action.
LORD ACTON
letter to Mary Gladstone, June 1, 1880
Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.
JOHN LE CARRÉ
A Perfect Spy
Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our own will. Nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness.
GEORGE ELIOT
Romola
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
BRUCE LEE
Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way
As a man believes, so he will act.
SAM HARRIS
The End of Faith
An action is the perfection and publication of thought.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Nature
We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Your actions are like a beacon of light that other staff can aspire to follow and depend upon for guidance.
MAHMUD MOHAMMED
"Nigeria: Budget Constraint Crippling the Judiciary, Says CJN", All Africa, September 6, 2016
Never confuse movement with action.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
attributed, Papa Hemingway
A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Action without a name, a "who" attached to it, is meaningless.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Human Condition
Action is eloquence.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Coriolanus
Make your actions deliberate, not rushed and random.
STATE JOURNAL STAFF
"Leap Day offers extra time to focus on 'big-picture' -- use it wisely", The State Journal, February 29, 2016
An inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Physics and Politics