Quotes about action

In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.

— W. H. Auden

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

— Albert Camus

No sooner is your ocean filled, than he grumbles that it might have been of better vintage. Try him with half of a Universe, of an Omnipotence, he sets to quarrelling with the proprietor of the other half, and declares himself the most maltreated of men. Always there is a black spot in our sunshine: it is even as I said, the Shadow of Ourselves.

— Thomas Carlyle

There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says, Anywhere but here.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone, All centuries but this, and every country but his own.

— W. S. Gilbert

The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the building stones of explosives, stimulants, poisons, opiates, perfumes and stenches.

— Eric Hoffer

Change occurs in direct proportion to dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction never changes.

— Doug Horton

If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger.

— Hubert H. Humphrey

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

— King Jr. Martin Luther

A fierce unrest seethes at the core, of all existing things:, it was the eager wish to soar, that gave the gods their wings.

— Don Marquis

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

— George Bernard Shaw

If we are suffering illness, poverty, or misfortune, we think we shall be satisfied on the day it ceases. But there too, we know it is false; so soon as one has got used to not suffering one wants something else.

— Simone Weil

Oh, I'm not going to do anything to them. The thought that I might will be enough to keep them going.

— Chris Bowkett

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

— Confucius

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

— Georges Courteline

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.

— Norman Cousins

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

— Trammell Crow

The sleeping fox catches no poultry.

— Benjamin Franklin

If you stand still long enough, you'll get stuck

— David Hasselhoff

Many are called but few get up.

— Oliver Herford

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

— Kin Hubbard

Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others. If you lean, you will never be strong or original. Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world.

— Orison Swett Marden

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

— Bob Marley

One of the best lessons children learn through video games is standing still will get them killed quicker than anything else.

— Jinx Milea

A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

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.

— Ronald Reagan

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

— Zen Saying

My friend, why have you drifted so far away? All motion is relative, maybe it is you who have moved away by standing still.

— Source Unknown

Anything you do can get you fired; this includes doing nothing.

— Source Unknown

Doing nothing is the most tiresome job in the world because you cannot quit and rest.

— Source Unknown

It is following the line of least resistance that makes men and rivers crooked.

— Source Unknown

Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business.

— Thomas J. Watson

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

— Oscar Wilde

Reactionary: A man walking backwards with his face to the future.

— Aneurin Bevan

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

— Robin G. Collingwood

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Ronald Segal

All the reputedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Was not Hitler a paper tiger? Was Hitler not overthrown? U.S. imperialism has not yet been overthrown and it has the atomic bomb. I believe it also will be overthrown. It, too, is a paper tiger.

— Mao Zedong

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

— Lord Acton

You can never get enough of the things you don't need, because the things you don't need can never satisfy.

— Marvin J. Ashton

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

— Winston Churchill

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

— Thomas A. Edison

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

— Epictetus

He is rich that is satisfied.

— Thomas Fuller

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

— Mahatma Gandhi

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

— Lao-Tzu

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

— Marcus Valerius Martial

Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

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

— Cool Runnings Movie

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.

— Linus Pauling

Many have too much, but none enough.

— Danish Proverb

When we don't have what we like, we must like what we have.

— French Proverb

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

In this country men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.

— Charles Francis Adams

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

— Leo Aikman

The shortest distance between two points is under construction.

— Noelie Alito

The greatest potential for control tends to exist at the point where action takes place.

— Loius A. Allen

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

— Henri Frederic Amiel

Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.

— Henri Frederic Amiel

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

— Henri Frederic Amiel

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

— Maya Angelou

Effective action is always unjust.

— Jean Anouilh

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed.

— John Anster

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.

— St. Thomas Aquinas

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.

— Hannah Arendt

Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.

— Hannah Arendt

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

— Aristotle

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

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

— Aristotle

Well begun is half done.

— Aristotle

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

— Red Auerbach

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

— Marcus Aurelius

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.

— Marcus Aurelius

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

— Marcus Aurelius

Begin -- to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

— Decimus Magnus Ausonius

It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!

— Francis Bacon

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

— Honore De Balzac

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

— Al Batt

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

— Sally Berger

Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

— Henri L. Bergson

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.

— Annie Besant

Action is the product of the qualities inherent in nature.

— Bhagavad Gita

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. [Matthew 7:12]

— Bible

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

— Bible

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

— Bible

All rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.

— Bible

You can't aim a duck to death.

— Gael Boardman

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

— Jacob Bronowski

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

— Charlotte Bronte

Let your performance do the thinking.

— H. Jackson Brown Jr.

You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.

— Les Brown

Take action in order to move toward your goals.

— Les Brown

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

— Jean De La Bruyere

Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

— Warren Buffett

Let us do or die.

— Robert Burns

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.

— Nolan Bushnell

Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.

— Anne Byrhhe

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.

— Eileen Caddy

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

— Pedro Calderon de la Barca