quotations about action
When nothing hampers action, the soul has fewer reasons for action.
ROMAIN ROLLAND
Jean-Christophe
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
A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action.
HENRI BERGSON
speech at the Descartes Conference in Paris, 1937
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 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
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
We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Action is character.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Notes for The Last Tycoon
Action is eloquence.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Coriolanus
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
An action is the perfection and publication of thought.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Nature
Potential is the good of life -- action the secret key.
D. WILLIAMS
"Action", The National Magazine, Dec. 1854
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
The mind sees, the will commands, the man acts. What is it then to act? To act is to produce something. If you have produced nothing--if no result has been the fruit of your will, you have done nothing.
HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE
God and Man: Conferences Delivered at Notre Dame in Paris by the Rev. Père Lacordaire
When you act with a genuine heart, everything will fall into place.
RUBY LIM
"Imbibing the discipline of kendo", The Star Online, February 24, 2016
Action without a name, a "who" attached to it, is meaningless.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Human Condition
If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm -- but that's a lie.... That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.
VINCENT VAN GOGH
letter to Theo van Gogh, Oct. 1884
All action presupposes an end.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Never confuse movement with action.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
attributed, Papa Hemingway