Action Quotes
My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now. - - Comment made 10 April 1962 in reaction to news that U. S. Steel was raising prices by $6 per ton, right after the unions negotiated a modest new contract under pressure from JFK to keep inflation down.John F. Kennedy, "A Thousand Days, " by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. [1965]
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.Rita Mae Brown
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.Leonardo da Vinci
The double law of attraction and radiation or of sympathy and antipathy, of fixedness and movement, which is the principle of Creation, and the perpetual cause of life.Albert Pike
Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.Joel Barke
One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.Isaac Asimov
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.John Locke
Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.Carl Weick
Actions have consequences... first rule of life. And the second rule is this - You are the only one responsible for your own actions.Holly Lisle, Fire In The Mist, 1992
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life.... Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.Abigail Adams, letter to her sister, Mary Smith Cranch, 1784
Men are not made religious by performing certain actions which are externally good, but they must first have righteous principles, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.Martin Luthe
The superior man is modest in his speech, but excels in his actions.Confucius
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.Benjamin Disraeli
Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.Bergen Evans
It is not necessary for all men to be great in action. The greatest and sublimest power is simple patience.Horace Bushnell
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.George Washington
Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.Anne Frank
Eduaction is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.Oscar Wilde
If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying. Handwritten statement found in her residence.Indira Nehru Gandhi
All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.Demosthenes
An action will not be right unless the will be right for from thence is the action derived. Again, the will will not be right unless the disposition of the mind be right for from thence comes the will.Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Most people hew the battlements of life from compromise, erecting their impregnable keeps from judicious submissions, fabricating their philosophical drawbridges from emotional retractions and scalding marauders in the boiling oil of sour grapes.Zelda
A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.Jawaharlal Nehru
Deliberation is the function of many, action is the function of one.Charles De Gaulle
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774
The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.Martin Luther King, Jr.
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.La Rochefoucauld
Thoughts lead on to purposes purposes go forth in action actions form habits habits decide character and character fixes our destiny.Tryon Edwards
To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward in my actions and not from them.Hugh Prathe
We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice.Friedrich August von Hayek
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - Namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Chapter 2
The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it disposes and eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.Plutarch
The history of man is a graveyard of great cultures that came to catastrophic ends because of their incapacity for planned, rational, voluntary reaction to challenge.Erich Fromm
Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.Hannah Arendt
