Action Quotes

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the preferably sudden satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree.

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted the indifference of those who should have known better the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie

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

Aristotle

Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunites for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.

Eric Hoffe

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

Louis A. Allen

Actions lie louder than words.

Carolyn Wells

You need more fact in the dangerous art of giving presents than in any other social action.

William Bolitho

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

Sir Winston Churchill, Radio speech, 1939

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sir, I say that justice is truth in action.

Benjamin Disraeli

Great men of action... never mind on occasion being ridiculous in a sense it is part of their job, and at times they all are. A prophet or an achiever must never mind an occasional absurdity, it is an occupational risk.

Oswald Mosley

The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.

Edward W. Howe

Words divide us, actions unite us.

Slogan of the Tupamaros

There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.

James Branch Cabell

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Bertrand Russell

A vision without action is called a daydream; but then again, action without a vision is called a nightmare.

Jim Sorensen

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

Socrates

When action grows unprofitable, gather information when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

Ursula K. LeGuin

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to the end, requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tell others of the positive effects of their actions. It will help return the kindness they showed to you.

Dan Kelly

We must dare to think about unthinkable things because when things become unthinkable thinking stops and action becomes mindless.

William Fullbright

Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.

Alfred A. Montapert

Life is action and passion therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of the time, at peril of being judged not to have lived.

Oliver Wendell Holmes