The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
Albert Einstein
If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.
Alex Noble
Action should culminate in wisdom, or is it action is a culmination of wisdom.
Bhagavad Gita
Action is the product of the qualities inherent in nature.
Bhagavad Gita
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
Alfred Adler
Talk doesn’t cook rice.
Chinese Proverb
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing
brave actions.
Aristotle
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
Aristotle
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions,
habit, reason, passion, desire.
Aristotle
We cannot think first and act afterward. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.
Alfred North Whitehead
I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.
William J. Lock
What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations… is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one’s
own efforts.
Hannah Arendt
Action without a name, a “who” attached to it, is meaningless.
Hannah Arendt
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
Baltasar Gracián
Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can
take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet more apt for contemplation.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed.
John Anster
Effective action is always unjust.
Jean Anouilh
A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
Maya Angelou
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.
Anais Nin
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
Anatole France
People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.
Lewis Cass
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
Calvin Coolidge
To wait for someone else, or to expect someone else to make my life richer, or fuller, or more
satisfying, puts me in a constant state of suspension.
Kathleen Tierney Andrus
For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
Henri Frederic Amiel
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by
reflection, criticism, and doubt.
Henri Frederic Amiel
The greatest potential for control tends to exist at the point where action takes place.
Louis A. Allen
The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
Noelie Alito
From a little spark may burst a mighty flame.
Dante Alighieri
All know the way; few actually walk it.
Bodhidharma
You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others
say about him.
Leo Aikman
I am one of those people who can’t help getting a kick out of life — even when it’s a kick in the
teeth.
Polly Adler
Life happens at the level of events, not words.
Alfred Adler
In this country men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they
retire.
Charles Francis Adams
Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.
Henri L. Bergson
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Sally Berger
There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except one that you dare not start.
Charles Baudelaire
It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.
Al Batt
Let me tell thee, time is a very precious gift of God; so precious that He only gives it to us
moment by moment. He would not have thee waste it.
Amelia E. Barr
The most effective way to do it, is to do it.
Toni Cade Bambara
Most people of action are inclined to fatalism and most of thought believe in providence.
Honore De Balzac
You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency
in your life.
Les Brown
Take action in order to move toward your goals.
Les Brown
Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
It was prettily devised of Aesop, “The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!”
Francis Bacon
The good that is in you is the good that you do for others.
Roger Babson
To begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
Decimus Magnus Ausonius
Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
Marcus Aurelius
Let your performance do the thinking.
H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just
dig.
Marcus Aurelius
The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.
Red Auerbach
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.
Walter Anderson
In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.
W. H. Auden
You can never get enough of the things you don’t need, because the things you don’t need can never satisfy.
Marvin J. Ashton
Who hesitate and falter life away, and lose tomorrow the ground won today.
Matthew Arnold
What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.
Aristotle
Well begun is half done.
Aristotle
We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave
by performing brave action.
Aristotle
Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.
Anne Byrhhe
Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Warren Buffett
It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action;
and they will make it if they cannot find it.
Charlotte Bronte
