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"Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble."
-Arabic Proverb
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"Discretion is being able to raise your eyebrow instead of your voice."
-Anon.
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To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out to another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk to failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
-Anon., [seen variously attributed with slight variations to William Arthur Ward, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Leo Buscaglia, and anonymous]
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Many aspire to change the world but few realize that everyone accomplishes that goal. Each day you live you are changing something. Rather than simply changing the world, one should aspire to make a positive change with each action they commit.
-Anon., [anonymous: submitted to Quoteland]
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The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.
-Japanese Proverb
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"Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg."
-Anon.
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All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light.
-Francis Bacon
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Confusing the words wish, faith and pray with each other usually just results in a minor grammatical faux pas, but when any of these words, especially hope, is confused with action, the results are much more devastating.
-Bo Bennett
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Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them
The source of the famous "Golden Rule." Many famous lines were variations on this theme.
-Bible, Matthew 7:12 (KJV)
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When I talked, no one listened to me. But as soon as I acted I became persuasive, and I no longer find anyone incredulous.
-Giosué, Borsi
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We have to understand the world can only be grasped by action, not by comtemplation. The hand is more important than the eye....The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.
-Jacob Bronowski
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"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must."
-Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
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Life's rewards go to those who let their actions rise above their excuses.
-Lee J. Colan, Orchestrating Attitude
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While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.
-Stephen Covey
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It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act. There are two aspects to action. One is to overcome the distortions and afflictions of your own mind, that is, in terms of calming and eventually dispelling anger. This is action out of compassion. The other is more social, more public. When something needs to be done in the world to rectify the wrongs, if one is really concerned with benefitting others, one needs to be engaged, involved.
-Dalai Lama, "The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom"
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People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works.
-Meister Eckhart
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"It's not your blue blood, your pedigree or your college degree. It's what you do with your life that counts."
-Millard Fuller
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"We must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose."
-Indira Gandhi
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"Have a bias toward action - let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away."
-Indira Gandhi
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There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.
-Martha Graham
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We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change cries out loudly enough to force upon us a choice between the comforts of further inertia and the irksomeness of action.
-Judge Learned Hand
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"He has the deed half done who has made a beginning."
-Horace
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"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."
Lat., "Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow."
-Horace, Odes
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"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."
-Elbert Hubbard
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So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
-Lee Iacocca
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We judge ourselves by our best intentions and most noble acts but we will be judged by our last worst act.
-Michael Josephson
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We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.
-Benjamin Jowett
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"Whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in a pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer."
-Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
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There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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"Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation...
It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
-Robert Francis Kennedy, speech at Day of Affirmation, University of Capetown, South Africa
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"Whatever our creed, we feel that no good deed can by any possibility go unrewarded, no evil deed unpunished."
-Orison Swett Marden
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead
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You must realize that it is the ordinary way of God's dealings with us that our ideas do not work out speedily and efficiently as we would like them to. The reason for this is not only the loving wisdom of God, but also the fact that our acts have to fit into a great complex pattern that we cannot possibly understand. I have learned over the years that Providence is always a whole lot wiser than any of us, and that there are always not only good reasons, but the very best reasons for the delays and blocks that often seem to us so frustrating and absurd.
-Thomas Merton, The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns
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However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.
-François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, 1665
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"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
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The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
-B. F. Skinner
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It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.
-Sydney Smith
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Don’t be a know-it-all; be a show-it-all. Put your motion where your mouth is.
-Scott Sorrell
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Dreaming is wonderful, goal setting is crucial, but action is supreme. To make something great happen you must get busy and make it happen. Take that action step today that will put you on your path to achievement.
-Greg Werner
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Action is transitory, a step, a blow,
The motion of a muscle, this way or that,
'Tis done--And in the after-vacancy,
We wonder at ourselves, like men betrayed.
-William Wordsworth, The Borderers, Act III
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"Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed:
Who does the best his circumstance allows
Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more."
-Edward Young, Night Thoughts. Night ii. Line 90.
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Books about Action(s)
