action quotes

“As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.”

— Gore Vidal

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”

— Pablo Picasso

“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”

— Confucius

“The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”

— Confucius

“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”

— Confucius

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

— Confucius

“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

“It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

“Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

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

— Thomas Jefferson

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“The most decisive actions of life are most often unconsidered actions.”

— Andre Gide

“It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.”

— Antoine de Saint Exupery

“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.”

— Sigmund Freud

“Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient's ego freedom to decide one way or another.”

— Sigmund Freud

“We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the exigencies of life at the cost of satisfaction of the instincts.”

— Sigmund Freud

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

— Dale Carnegie

“Friendship is the bestiest thing that comes to life . Friends will always be there for you don't worry about the fakes worry about the people who had your back from the start and never treated you wrong always remember they are your real friends don't never take them as granted because one day your going to lose a good friend by the way your action's are when you see a good friend stick to that person.”

— Marilyn Monroe

“There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem? ”

— Phyllis Diller

“We should seek the greatest value of our action. ”

— Stephen Hawking

“The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.”

— Honore de Balzac

“Power is action; the electoral principle is discussion. No political action is possible when discussion is permanently established.”

— Honore de Balzac

“One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.”

— Aldous Huxley

“We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

“We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn't matter.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger