Quotes About Action

Action is the antidote to despair.  ~ Joan Baez


The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resourse of those who know not how to dream.  ~ Oscar Wilde


Words may show a man's wit, actions his meaning.  ~ Benjamin Franklin


What keeps me going is goals.  ~ Muhammad Ali


Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.  ~ Thomas Jefferson


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


Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.  ~ Leo Buscaglia


Effective action is always unjust.  ~ Maya Angelou


Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.  ~ Mark Twain


The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.  ~ Confucius


We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.  ~ Calvin Coolidge


If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.  ~ Thomas Jefferson


People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.  ~ Lewis Cass


All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us.  ~ Albert Einstein


I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.  ~ William J. Lock


Let him that would move the world, first move himself.  ~ Socrates


To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.  ~ Anatole France


Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.  ~ Mother Teresa


All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.  ~ Albert Einstein


All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them but confront them.  ~ William F. Halsey


We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.  ~ Mother Teresa


He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.  ~ William Blake


It is in human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.  ~ Anatole France


As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say.  I just watch what they do.  ~ Andrew Carnegie


Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.  ~ Herber Hoover


Every action has its pleasures and its price.  ~ Socrates


If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.  ~ Jonathan Winters


What man really wishes to do he will find a means of doing.  ~ George Bernard Shaw


A meowing cat catches no mice.  ~ Yiddish proverb


When deeds speak, words are nothing.  ~ African Proverb


Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  ~ Mark Twain


No bird soars too highif he soars with his own wings.  ~ William Blake


Men expect too much, do too little.  ~ Allen Tate


We are what we do.  ~ Erich Fromm


Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve.  ~ Tehyi Hsieh


It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness.  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt


The secret to getting ahead is getting started.  ~ Mark Twain


Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.  ~ James Baldwin


One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness:  not to be a mere rushing on.  ~ D.H. Lawrence


In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.  ~ Jack London


He that waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner.  ~ Benjamin Franklin


Don't find fault.  Find a remedy.  ~ Henry Ford


Well done is better than well said.  ~ Benjamin Franklin


There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt


Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.  ~ Plato


I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.  ~ John Locke


Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today.  ~ Thomas Jefferson


Never confuse motion with action.  ~ Benjamin Franklin


Prayer in action is love, love in action is service.  ~ Mother Teresa


What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.  ~ Aristotle


The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.  ~ Thomas Fuller


Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.  ~ Albert Einstein


Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.  ~ Charles de Gaulle


Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.  ~ William James