Action
We can usually recognize the consequence of our actions. It is
the consequence of our inaction that gets confused with the inevitable. ~Robert Brault
Give me a life of action, and I will accept its sorrow and its
tragedy, if I may escape the way of inanition. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My
Little Book of Prayer, 1904
The first requirement in taking a step in the right direction is
to take a step in some direction. ~Robert Brault.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters
of their thoughts. ~John
Locke, 1689
Blind action is more dangerous than no action at all. ~David Starr Jordan, "The
Social Order," notes from an unpublished lecture, in The Care and Culture
of Men, 1896
Well done is better than well said. ~Benjamin
Franklin, 1737
Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out. ~Italian proverb
It may be folly to expect adults to do what they may reasonably
be expected to do, and as everyone should know, when everything has been said
and done, more will have been said than done... ~Ashley Montagu, Man Observed,
1968
Every man is the son of his actions. ~Spanish proverb
The great man is the man who has the courage to act. ~Martin H.
Fischer (1879–1962)
The shortest answer is doing. ~Jacula Prudentum, George
Herbert, 1640
The shortest answer is doing the thing. ~"Detached
Sentences," The Prose Epitome; or, Elegant Extracts Abridged, &c.,
1792
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of
words. Trust movement. ~Alfred Adler
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a
thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates
action. ~Frank
Tibolt
I will hasten to answer the cry of my soul, lest long unheeded
it cease to call. I will speed me about my high endeavour, lest long delayed
the fire burn low. I will quicken the day of the manifest, lest long unfilled I
lose faith in my dreams. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer,
1904
A promise is a cloud; fulfilment is rain. ~Arabian proverb
An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than
the brain cell it occupied. ~Arnold Glasow
The challenge of every day is to establish some relationship
between what you want from life and your Daily Planner. ~Robert Brault
Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. ~Peter Marshall
Never confuse movement with action. ~Ernest
Hemingway
Action is eloquence... ~William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, c.1607 [III, 2, Volumnia]
Up and at it!
Sleepyheads!
Better wear our
Shoes than Beds.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Industry," A Poet's Proverbs,
1924
Note to self: finding a cool quote and writing it in your
journal is not a substitute for Getting. It. Done. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon
There's something real satisfying about working, and having
gotten it done. ~Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Ruth Shick Montgomery, Mrs.
L.B.J., 1964
Well-matured
and well-disciplined talent is always sure of a market, provided it exerts
itself; but it must not cower at home and expect to be sought for. There is a
good deal of cant, too, in the whining about the success of forward and
impudent men, while men of retiring worth are passed over with neglect. But it
happens often that those forward men have that valuable quality of promptness
and activity, without which worth is a mere inoperative property.
A barking dog is often more useful than a
sleeping lion. Endeavour to make your talents convertible to ready use, prompt
for the occasion, and adapted to the ordinary purposes of life; cultivate
strength rather than gracefulness; in our country it is the useful, not the
ornamental, that is in demand.
~Washington Irving,
letter to Pierre Paris Irving (nephew), 1824 December 7th [the dog/lion line
being a less fatal twist of Ecclesiastes 9:4 —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]
Think wisely,
weighing Word and Fact,
But never Think too
much to Act.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Timidity," A Poet's Proverbs,
1924
Action, indeed... is the last resource of those who know not how
to dream. ~Oscar Wilde
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. ~Walter Anderson, The
Confidence Course, 1997
Between what you can and what you do lies a sea, and in its
depths lies buried the wrecked will.
~Marie Dubsky, Freifrau von Ebner-Eschenbach
(1830–1916), translated by Mrs Annis Lee Wister, 1882
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. ~Author unknown,
1950s
The ratio of dreaming to doing varies inversely with the rate of
accomplishment. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
There may be no very close relationship between fate and
furniture, yet it is doubtful if any of the world's great problems have been
solved by men sitting in easy rocking-chairs. ~"Poor
Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George
Horace Lorimer, editor
Words are sometimes efficacious, but the best sermons have been
preached by Example. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The
Saturday Evening Post, 1909, George Horace Lorimer, editor
The greatest difficulty in attempting to remove a difficulty, is
in thinking too much about the difficulty of removing the difficulty. ~James Lendall
Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882
Never act until you have clearly answered the question:
"What happens if I do nothing?"
~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
If ifs were gifts, every day would be Christmas. ~Charles Barkley
And is then example nothing? It is everything. Example is the
school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. ~Edmund Burke, 1796
Talk doesn't cook rice.
~Chinese proverb
Not all my day can I spend in listening, for I, too, must
evolve, ere the night comes on. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer,
1904
The first step binds one to the second. ~French proverb
We believe actions speak louder than tweets. ~KLM Royal Dutch Airlines,
December 2012, www.klm.com
One Hour of Gallant
Striving up the Hill
Is worth a Hundred
Years of Standing Still.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Vigor," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act;
but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. ~G.K.
Chesterton, 1922
When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt. ~Henry J. Kaiser
Action is the antidote to
despair. Almost any kind of action, especially that which is intelligently
planned, is better than spending one's days in a dither. ~Cid Ricketts Sumner,
"The spice of life," A View from the Hill, 1957
From the personals: "Bundle
of good intentions seeks mind reader." ~Robert Brault,
rbrault.blogspot.com, 2016
Doing things is not the same as
getting things done. ~Jared Silver, @JaredSilver (Twitter), jaredasilver.com
It is our choices that show what
we truly are, far more than our abilities. ~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets, 1999 [Albus Dumbledore
—tg]
The trick to getting things done
is to list things to do in doable order. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
[C]reative spirits always
anticipate the course of events. They do not wait for the dawn of a new era.
They resolutely begin the new era at the moment when they see that the old era
is ended. ~Samuel McChord Crothers, "On the Evening of the New Day,"
The Atlantic Monthly, January 1919
A man can fool you with his mind,
and his Soul and his Heart, but if you follow his feet you will pretty near
find out where he is going. ~Will Rogers (1879–1935)
Fitzpatrick... liked to go from A
to B without inventing letters in between. ~John McPhee, The Deltoid Pumpkin
Seed, 1973
He was a man of action. He knew
how to go from A to B without inventing letters between them and realised that
the best way out of a problem was to crash through it. ~Donald Edward Farrell,
of Jim Maher, 2008 [see McPhee —tg]
Let me do Something; this I
chiefly ask;
For doing Nothing is the Harder
Task.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of
Achievement," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924
A man never catches up with his
good intentions for to-morrow. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy,"
The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George Horace Lorimer, editor
The surest way to escape anxiety
and defeat despair is action. Do, don't dwell. ~Michael Josephson,
whatwillmatter.com
Doing nothing is harmless, but
being busy doing nothing is not. ~Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human
Condition, 1973
It is a golden rule that one
should never judge men by their opinions, but rather by what these opinions
lead them to be. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), translated by Norman
Alliston, 1908
We all know them — the
unstructured person whose every action seems aimless and the totally organized
person whose every action defeats some purpose. ~Robert Brault,
rbrault.blogspot.com
A nod,
a bow,
and a tip of the lid
to the person
who coulda
and shoulda
and did.
~Robert Brault, "A Poem
Missing the Word Woulda," rbrault.blogspot.com
He who has made a thousand things
and he who has made none, both feel the same desire: to make something.
~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Don't find fault; find a remedy.
~Henry Ford
What ought to have been done, and
what shall be done, often stifle doing between them. ~Augustus William Hare and
Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
It is a sad lament — the
happiness you might have found if you had taken the path that still lies right
there in front of you. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Nature takes away any faculty
that is not used. ~William Ralph Inge
They are little to be feared
whose tongues are their swords. ~Proverb
The problem is to be faced and
the solution to be shirked. ~Bernard Shaw, 1910
He that waits upon Fortune, is
never sure of a Dinner. ~Benjamin Franklin
If I set for myself a task, be it
so trifling, I shall see it through. How else shall I have confidence in myself
to do important things? ~George S. Clason, Gold Ahead, 1937
Our Yankee trade... saves itself
by its activity... in skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. ~Ralph
Waldo Emerson, "Prudence"
Do not be wise in words — be wise
in deeds. ~Jewish proverb
Try, above all things to be still
and to contain yourself. You always want to rush into action. Realise that a
certain kind of stillness is the most perfect form of action, like a seed can
wait. One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not be a mere
rushing on. ~D.H. Lawrence, 1924
The secret of getting ahead is
getting started. ~Author unknown
Action! — that one stupendous
word I will translate into my soul. My days shall be peopled. There shall be
runnings to and fro, and chatterings. There shall be pistons sounding, and the
whirr of wheels. There shall be busy days' endings, with reckonings and
summings-up. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: LXIII," A
Soul's Faring, 1921
Action is taking the first step.
Action is climbing the hill. Action joined with desire, harmonious intent, and
undoubting yesfulness is invincible. Hallelujah! ~Terri Guillemets
Now and then it's good to list
all the things you regularly do for which there was once a good reason. ~Robert
Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
When deeds speak, words are
nothing. ~African proverb
I believe half the unhappiness in
life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things. ~William J.
Locke, Simon the Jester, 1910
When it seems that something
can't be done, start it, and see if the rest of it can be done. ~Robert Brault,
rbrault.blogspot.com
Action battles doubt. ~Terri
Guillemets, "The sword of doing," 2007
We can't do everything at once;
but we can do something at once, can we not? ~Asenath Carver Coolidge, The
Modern Blessing Fire, 1902
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