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Action Quotes

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Action Quotes

“Citizens who take it upon themselves to do unusual actions which attract the attention of the police should be careful to bring these actions into one of the recognized categories of crimes and offences, for it is intolerable that the police should be put to the pains of inventing reasons for finding them undesirable.”

ShouldReasonActionPainAttentionCrimeCitizensFindingsPoliceCarefulCategoriesUnusualBe CarefulInventingOffenceUndesirable
Author:A. P. Herbert
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“Dogs invite us not only to share their joy but also to live in the moment, where we are neither proceeding from nor moving toward, where the enchantment of the past and future cannot distract us, where a freedom from practical desire and a cessation of our usual ceaseless action allows us to recognize the truth of our existence, the reality of our world and purpose--if we dare.”

IfsWorldMomentsRealityActionPastMovingJoyDesirePurposeExistenceShareDogDarePracticalsOur WorldInvitesUsualLive In The MomentEnchantmentProceeding
Book:The Odd Thomas Series 7-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd
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“Through systematic terror, through indoctrination, through systematic manipulation of stimulus, reward, and punishment, we can today break man and convert him into brute animal... The first step toward survival is therefore to make government legitimate again by attempting to deprive it of these powers... by international action to ban such powers.”

MenFirstsGovernmentTodayActionAnimalStepsBreakSurvivalRewardsInternationalTerrorPunishmentManipulationFirst StepsAttemptingStimulusBrutesBansSystematicIndoctrinationReward And Punishment
Author:Peter Drucker
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“Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen; Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions: For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will, But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance.”

MenMayHappensActionPassionSidesHoursAnswersInfluenceEventsMastersCircumstancesCreaturesSlaveSelfishCirclesWillpowerWavering
Book:Tupper's Poetical Works: Proverbial Philosophy, A Thousand Lines, Hactenus
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“I could say analogously that tolerance is the affable appreciation of qualities, views, and actions of other individuals which are foreign to one`s own habits, beliefs, and tastes. Thus being tolerant does not mean being indifferent towards the actions and feelings of others. Understanding and empathy must also be present.”

MeanDoeFeelingsActionIndividualBeliefUnderstandingViewsQualityHabitTasteEmpathyAppreciationToleranceIndifferentAffable
Book:Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
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“Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.”

IfsShouldHumansActionNaturalSimpleAnimalViewsProductsBehaviorArgumentShould HaveBasesAriseNervousPrimariesHuman BehaviorSelectionNatural SelectionFallacyNervous System
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“We build our personalities laboriously and through many years, and we cannot order fundamental changes just because we might value their utility; no button reading "positive attitude" protrudes from our hearts, and no finger can coerce positivity into immediate action by a single and painless pressing.”

YearsHeartMightActionValuesOrderReadingAttitudePersonalityFundamentalsFingersPositivityPositive AttitudeButtonsUtilityPainlessCoerceImmediate Action
Book:Full House
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“The one who has the little need is the one who controls the whole relationship. You can see this dynamic so clearly because usually in every relationship there is one who loves the most and the other who doesn’t love, who only takes advantage of the one who gives his or her heart. You can see the way they manipulate each other, their actions and reactions, and they are just like the provider and the drug addict.”

WayNeedsGivingHeartLittlesWholeActionDrugAdvantageReactionsAddictManipulateDrug AddictProvidersAction And Reaction
Author:Miguel
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“In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and now of the recession I observe a mounting pressure to co-operate and to promote "teamwork." For its anti-individualistic streak, such a drive is of course highly suspect; some people may not be so sensitive to it, but having seen the Hitlerjugend in action suffices for the rest of your life to be very wary of "team spirit." Very.”

PeopleMayActionSpiritCoursesTeamRevolutionPressureSensitiveSuspectsTeamworkRest Of Your LifeRecessionsStreaksTeam SpiritIndividualistic
Author:Edsger Dijkstra
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“On the one hand, society needs a common faith and vigorous institutions with the power to coerce; and on the other, the individual as a human soul or as the bearer of a new and possibly saving heresy, must be free. It is difficult enough to reconcile these two needs, but the problem holds another hazard: the need of action under the pressure of time.”

NeedsHumansTwoSoulEnoughProblemHandsActionIndividualDifficultCommonPressureInstitutionsSavingHuman SoulHeresyVigorousReconcileHazardsCoerce
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“A license cannot be revoked because a man is red-headed or because he was divorced, except for a calling, if such there be, for which red-headedness or an unbroken marriage may have some rational bearing. If a State licensing agency lays bare its arbitrary action, or if the State law explicitly allows it to act arbitrarily, that is precisely the kind of State action which the Due Process Clause forbids.”

IfsMenKindMayStatesActionLawProcessCallingLaysDuesRationalAgencyLicenseArbitraryDivorcedUnbrokenClausesDue ProcessLicensing
Author:Felix Frankfurter
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“Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences. When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to "drop out," "turn on," and "tune in.”

ActionDiesTurnsIndividualConsciousnessEnvironmentBehaviorTunesRoutineArtificialTrappedRobotsAdaptationSequenceTurn-onHarmoniousHookedRebornRepetitive
Book:Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
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“We cannot judge either of the feelings or of the characters of men with perfect accuracy from their actions or their appearance in public; it is from their careless conversations, their half-finished sentences, that we may hope with the greatest probability of success to discover their real characters.”

MenMayRealCharacterFeelingsActionPerfectHalfJudgingConversationAppearanceSentencesFinishedProbabilityCarelessAccuracyReal CharacterCharacter Of A Man
Book:Castle Rackrent
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“My mother took too much, a great deal too much, care of me; she over-educated, over-instructed, over-dosed me with premature lessons of prudence: she was so afraid that I should ever do a foolish thing, or not say a wise one, that she prompted my every word, and guided my every action. So I grew up, seeing with her eyes, hearing with her ears, and judging with her understanding, till, at length, it was found out that I had not eyes, ears or understanding of my own.”

ShouldEyeCareActionMotherFoundUnderstandingMy OwnDealsToo MuchWiseSeeingJudgingGrewLessonsGrew UpEarsHearingFoolishEducatedLengthHer EyesPrudencePremature
Book:Works of Maria Edgeworth: Tales of fashionable life. 1826.- -v. 7. Patronage. 1825
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“No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity.”

KnowsMenNeedsGivingMayActionPainLyingSleepSpaceKnownKnow HowChangedGreatnessReturnSimplicityDrivenParticlesExaltedBlacknessFieryOuter SpaceWithout Pain
Book:Sweet Thursday
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“The psychical condition of men's minds may be compared with a set of bells close together, and so arranged that in the ordinary man a bell rings only when one beside it sounds, and the vibration lasts only a moment. In the genius, when a bell sounds it vibrates so strongly that it sets in action the whole series, and remains in action throughout life. The latter kind of movement often gives rise to extraordinary conditions and absurd impulses, that may last for weeks together and that form the basis of the supposed kinship of genius with insanity.”

MenGivingMindKindMayWholeMomentsActionTogetherLastsFormSoundWeekConditionsMovementGeniusOrdinaryBasesRemainsSeriesExtraordinaryRingsAbsurdImpulseInsanityLatterBellsVibrationsKinshipOrdinary ManVibrate
Author:Otto Weininger
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“The object of a dialogical-liberterian action is not to 'dislodge' the oppressed from a mythological reality in order to 'bind' them to another reality. On the contrary, the object of dialogical action is to make it possible for the oppressed, by perceiving their adhesion, to opt to transform an unjust reality." "In order for the oppressed to unite they must first cut the umbilical cord of magic and myth which binds them to the world of oppression; the unity which links them to each other must be of a different nature.”

WorldFirstsDifferentRealityActionOrderCuttingMagicObjectsUnityMythContraryOppressionLinksOppressedUnjustCordsUmbilical Cord
Author:Paulo Freire
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“When you have committed an action that you cannot bear to think about, that causes you to writhe in retrospect, do not seek to evade the memory: make yourself relive it, confront it repeatedly over and over, till finally, you will discover, through sheer repetition it loses its power to pain you. It works, I guarantee you, this sure-fire guilt-eradicator, like a homeopathic medicine - like in small doses applied to like. It works, but I am not sure that it is a good thing.”

ThinkingActionPainCausesLosesMemoriesFireBearsMedicineGuiltGood ThingsCommittedNot SureGuaranteesSheerRepetitionDoseRetrospect
Author:Mary McCarthy
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“There is but one question ultimately to be asked respecting every line you draw, Is it right or wrong? If right, it most assuredly is not a "free" line, but an intensely continent, restrained and considered line; and the action of the hand in laying it is just as decisive, and just as "free" as the hand of a first-rate surgeon in a critical incision.”

IfsFirstsHandsActionLinesDrawsRateCriticalContinentsSurgeons
Book:The Queen of the Air: Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm
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“Most often, the reason something is "on your mind" is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcomes is; you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust. That's why it's on your mind.”

WantMindDifferentReasonActionNextStepsHavensDecidedOutcomesReminders
Book:Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
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“It is precisely the sort of thing I am always trying to do in my writing -- to present my unhappy reader with a wide-ranged chaos -- of actions and reactions, thoughts, memories and feelings -- in the vain hope that at the end he will see that the whole thing represents only one moment, one feeling, one person. A raging, trumpeting jungle of associations, and then I announce at the end of it, with a gesture of despair, "This is I!”

WritingTryingPersonsEndsWholeMomentsFeelingsActionMemoriesReaderDespairChaosWideRageUnhappyReactionsVainAssociationGesturesJungleAlways TryingAction And Reaction
Book:Blue Voyage: A Novel
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“The knowledge and experience which produce wisdom can only become a man's individual possession and property by his own free action; and it is as futile to expect these without laborious, painstaking effort, as it is to hope to gather a harvest where the seed has not been sown.”

MenWisdomActionIndividualEffortProducePropertyPossessionSeedsHarvestKnowledge And Experience
Book:Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct
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“Imitation is for the most part so unconscious that its effects are almost unheeded, but its influence is not the less permanent on that account. It is only when an impressive nature is placed in contact with an impressionable one that the alteration in the character becomes recognizable. Yet even the weakest natures exercise some influence upon those about them. The approximation of feeling, thought, and habit is constant, and the action of example unceasing.”

CharacterFeelingsActionInfluenceEffectsExampleHabitExerciseAccountsConstantContactPermanentUnconsciousImitationImpressiveAlterationsApproximationImpressionable
Book:Happy Homes and the Hearts that Make Them. Or Thrifty People and why They Thrive
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“Most of the avoidable suffering in life springs from our attempts to escape the unavoidable suffering inherent in the fragmentary nature of our present existence. We expect immortal satisfactions from mortal conditions, and lasting and perfect happiness in the midst of universal change. To encourage this expectation, to persuade mankind that the ideal is realizable in this world, after a few preliminary changes in external conditions, is the distinguishing mark of all charlatans, whether in thought or action.”

WorldActionSufferingPerfectExistenceConditionsMankindThis WorldSpringExpectationsIdealsUniversalMarkSatisfactionMortalsImmortalMidstLastingInherentCharlatansPerfect HappinessSufferings In Life
Book:The Poisoned Crown
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“What actions are the most excellent? Those, certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections: to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time. These feelings are permanent and the same; that which interests them is permanent and the same also.”

HumansFeelingsActionInterestRaceIndependentAffectionPrimariesAppealsExcellentPermanentMost Powerful
Book:On the Classical Tradition
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“I have on my office wall a wise and useful reminder by Anne Morrow Lindbergh concerning one of the realities of life. She wrote, "My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds." That's good counsel for us all, not as an excuse to forgo duty, but as a sage point about pace and the need for quality in relationships.”

PeopleNeedsHeartRealityActionQualityWiseDutyWallMy HeartDemandOfficeExcuseReality Of LifePaceSageRemindersMorrow
Author:Neal A. Maxwell
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“Fortunately for mankind the brain in a life of action turns more to the matter in hand than to conjuring up the chances of the future.”

MatterHandsActionTurnsChanceBrainMankindConjuring
Book:The Complete Novels of John Buchan: 25+ Spy Classics, Thrillers & Adventure Novels in One Premium Edition (Unabridged): Including Richard Hannay Series, Dickson McCunn Trilogy & Sir Edward Leithen Series along with Midwinter, Witchwood, The Blanket of the Dark, The Free Fishers and more
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