Home / Topics / Action Quotes

Action Quotes

Browse 14405 quotes about Action.

Action Quotes

“In the Small group the individual can know the effects of his actions on his several fellows, and the rules may effectively forbid him to harm them in any manner and even require him to assist them in specific ways. In the Great Society many of the effects of a person's actions on various fellows must be unknown to him. It can, therefore, not be the specific effects in the particular case, but only rules which define kinds of actions prohibited or required, which must serve as guides to the individual.”

Knows Way Kind May Persons Action Individual Cases Groups Effects Particular Fellows Various Harm Guides Small Groups Great Society

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“It should also be born in mind that the research on 'movement' and the dynamic outlook on the world, which were the basis of Futurist theory, in no way required one to paint nothing but speeding cars or ballerinas in action; for a person who is seated, or an inanimate object, though apparently static, could be considered dynamically and suggest dynamic forms. I may mention as an example the 'Portrait of Madame S.' (1912) and the 'Seated Woman' (1914).”

World Way Should Mind May Persons Action Form Born Car Example Movement Objects Theory Research Bases Paint Portraits Outlook Static Ballerina Speeding Inanimate Objects Futurist Speeding Cars

Author:Gino Severini

“Rationally considered, nothing can be more absurd than the baptism of infants under any circumstances. No statement, no matter by whom it may be said to have been uttered, can make that true which is radically false. If an innocent child, unconscious of good or evil, irresponsible to God and man, incapable of thought or action, is not already, in accordance with Christian theology, a member of Christ, then no vicarious promise or priestly ablution can make him one. For if this were so, a similar ceremony under devil worship could make him a member of Satan.”

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

“If the system exhibits a structure which can be represented by a mathematical equivalent, called a mathematical model, and if the objective can be also so quantified, then some computational method may be evolved for choosing the best schedule of actions among alternatives. Such use of mathematical models is termed mathematical programming.”

Ifs May Use Action Models Method Structure Objectives Alternatives Mathematical Programming Schedules Exhibits Mathematical Models

Book:Linear Programming and Extensions

Source: Linear Programming and Extensions

“Written history may, in the course of its narrative, use some of the laws established by the various sciences, but its own task remains that of relating the essential sequence of historical action and, qua history, to tell what happened, not why.”

May Use Action Law Courses Written Happened Essentials Tasks Remains Historical Various Narrative Sequence Written History

Book:The New Psychohistory

Source: The New Psychohistory

“The freedom of thought and action we Americans enjoy today seems as natural as the air we breathe. But there is a danger we may take this freedom for granted. We must never forget it was bought for us at a great price. The brave and resourceful Americans whose sacrifices gained our Independence and preserved it for more than 200 years against formidable foes have set an example of unflinching loyalty to the ideal of liberty and justice for all.”

“No one statement wrested from its context is a sufficient warrant for actions that plainly controvert other commands. How excellent a thing it would be if the whole Church of Christ had learned that no law of life may be based upon an isolated text. Every false teacher who has divided the Church, has had, "it is written" on which to hang his doctrine.”

Ifs May Whole Would Be Action Law Christ Church Teacher Written Statements Doctrine Command Excellent Sufficient Divided Isolated Warrants Laws Of Life Church Of Christ

Author:G. Campbell Morgan

“If the knowledge of torture of others makes you sick, it is a case of sympathy... It can be argued that behaviour based on sympathy is in an important sense egoistic, for one is oneself pleased at others' pleasure and pained at others' pain, and the pursuit of one's own utility may thus be helped by sympathetic action.”

Ifs May Important Action Pain Religion Pleasure Cases Morality Sick Oneself Pursuit Torture Behaviour Utility Sympathetic Pain And Pleasure

Book:Choice, Welfare and Measurement

Source: Choice, Welfare and Measurement

“In this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past, so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and our action, to our judgement and our resolution, that He will safeguard us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that he may grant to us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the German people, and that he may ever give us the courage to do the right, never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger.”

Source: The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939

“The most dangerous action a woman can take when faced with a criminal is to resist with her fists: That tends to annoy violent criminals, and the woman will very likely be seriously injured. But a woman who takes the advice of Handgun Control Inc. and passively submits is 2.5 times more likely to be injured than a woman who resists with a gun. So if you don't want to lie back and enjoy it, get a gun. Otherwise you may never become a mom.”

Ifs Want May Action Lying Enjoy Advice Dangerous Mom Gun Criminals Violent Annoying Submit Gun Control Fists Injured Handguns Violent Criminals

Author:Ann Coulter

“Meditation may require a lifetime to master, but it will have been a lifetime well spent. ... If you want to judge your progress, ask yourself these questions: Am I more loving? Is my judgment sounder? Do I have more energy? Can my mind remain calm under provocation? Am I free from the conditioning of anger, fear, and greed? Spiritual awareness reveals itself as eloquently in character development and selfless action as in mystical states.”

“Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge.”

Ifs Men Mind May Action Law Judging Conscience Compare Thoughts And Actions Accusers

Author:Jonathan Swift

“The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.”

Men May Self Action Causes Virtue Bears Self Love Please Vices Motive Distinction Strict Employed Inquiry Incline

Book:The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author

Source: The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author

“Many whites, even white Southerners told me that even though it may have seemed like the blacks were being freed (by my actions) they felt more free and at ease themselves. They thought that my action didn't just free blacks but them, too.”

May Action Felt White Activism Ease Being Free Southerner

Author:Rosa Parks

“It is curious for one who studies the action and reaction of national literature on each other, to see the humor of Swift and Sterne and Fielding, after filtering through Richter, reappear in Carlyle with a tinge of Germanism that makes it novel, alien, or even displeasing, as the case may be, to the English mind.”

Mind May Action Literature Cases Novel Study Style Reactions Curious Aliens Action And Reaction

Book:Literary essays; Among my books, My study windows, Fireside travels

Source: Literary essays; Among my books, My study windows, Fireside travels

“Even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labor under this disadvantage, that however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him.”

May Persons Action Labor Extraordinary Expected Surprising Disadvantages Notoriety

Book:The spectator

Source: The spectator

“practically nothing we do ever stands by itself. If it is good, it will serve some good purpose in the future. If it is evil, it may haunt us and handicap our efforts in unimagined ways.”

Ifs Way May Action Purpose Evil Effort Handicaps

Book:Autobiography

Source: Autobiography

“Prodigious actions may as well be done, by weaver's issue, as the prince's son.”

Wells May Done Action Issues Son Prodigious Weavers

Author:John Dryden

“A man may be cheerful and contented in celibacy, but I do not think he can ever be happy; it is an unnatural state, and the best feelings of his nature are never called into action.”

Thinking Men May States Feelings Action Marriage Cheerful Unnatural Celibacy

Book:Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey

Source: Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey

“If we are waiting for guaranteed courses of action, we may spend much of our life waiting.”

Ifs May Action Courses Waiting Our Lives Security

Book:The Language of Letting Go

Source: The Language of Letting Go

“Demean thyself more warily in thy study than in the street. If thy public actions have a hundred witnesses, thy private have a thousand. The multitude looks but upon thy actions; thy conscience looks into them: the multitude may chance to excuse thee, if not acquit thee; thy conscience will accuse thee, if not condemn thee.”

Ifs Looks May Action Chance Study Streets Thousand Hundred Conscience Excuse Witness Thee Retirement Multitudes Thyself

Book:Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles

Source: Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles

“There is no word or action but may be taken with two hands,--either with the right hand of charitable construction, or the sinister interpretation of malice and suspicion; and all things do succeed as they are taken. To construe an evil, action well is but a pleasing and profitable deceit to myself; but to misconstrue a good thing is a treble wrong,--to myself, the action, and the author.”

Source: The Works of Joseph Hall: Devotional works; Miscellaneous theology

“a vast deal may be done by those who dare to act.”

May Done Action Deals Dare

Book:Emma

Source: Emma

“There is no action so slight or so mean but it may be done to a great purpose, and ennobled thereby.”

May Mean Done Action Purpose

Author:John Ruskin

“The actions of a human being, even of fifteen months of age, may not be without significance to a sympathetic eye.”

Humans May Eye Age Action Human Beings Months Significance Fifteen Sympathetic

Book:Self-reliance: A Practical and Informal Discussion of Methods of Teaching Self-reliance, Initiative and Responsibility to Modern Children

Source: Self-reliance: A Practical and Informal Discussion of Methods of Teaching Self-reliance, Initiative and Responsibility to Modern Children

“Hate is perhaps the most dynamic of all emotions - fear may immobilize, love may stay the hand, but hate urges to action.”

May Hands Action Hate Emotion Urges

Author:Alice Duer Miller

“Temptation is a fearful word. It indicates the beginning of a possible series of infinite evils. It is the ringing of an alarm bell, whose melancholy sounds may reverberate through eternity. Like the sudden, sharp cry of "Fire!" under our windows by night, it should rouse us to instantaneous action, and brace every muscle to its highest tension.”

Should May Action Night Evil Sound Fire Cry Highest Window Eternity Infinite Series Temptation Tension Muscles Melancholy Fearful Bells Alarms Braces Instantaneous

Author:Horace Mann

“It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may, perhaps, succeed for once, and borrow for awhile, from hope, a gay and flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they fall into ruin of themselves. For, as in structures of every kind, the lower parts should have the greatest firmness--so the grounds and principles of actions should be just and true.”

Source: All the orations of Demosthenes, pronounced to excite the Athenians against Philip King of Macedon: Translated into English; digested and connected, so as to form a regular history of the progress of the Macedonian power: with notes historical and critical. By Thomas Leland, ...

“Every one may know that to will and not to do, when there is opportunity, is in reality not to will; and that to love what is good and not to do it, when it is possible, is in reality not to love it. Will, which stops short of action, and love, which does not do the good that is loved, is a mere thought separate from will and love, which vanishes and comes to nothing.”

Knows May Doe Reality Action Opportunity And Love Mere Deeds

Author:Emanuel Swedenborg

“I lay very little stress either upon asking or giving advice. Generally speaking, they who ask advice know what they wish to do, and remain firm to their intentions. A man may allow himself to be enlightened on various points, even upon matters of expediency and duty; but, after all, he must determine his course of action, for himself.”

Knows Men Giving May Littles Matter Action Courses Asks Wish Advice Duty Stress Asking Lays Intention Determine Various Firm Enlightened Expediency Giving Advice

Author:Wilhelm von Humboldt

“The most reckless sinner against his own conscience has always in the background the consolation that he will go on in this course only this time, or only so long, but that at such a time he will amend. We may be assured that we do not stand clear with our own consciences so long as we determine or project, or even hold it possible, at some future time to alter our course of action.”

May Long Action Courses Clear Goes On Projects Conscience Determine Backgrounds Sinner Consolation Assured Reckless Future Time

Author:Johann Gottlieb Fichte

“Disturbers are never popular - nobody ever really loved an alarm clock in action, no matter how grateful he may have been afterwards for its kind services!”

Kind May Has Beens Matter Action Grateful Activism Clock Alarms Alarm Clocks

Book:In Times Like These

Source: In Times Like These

“Any action, like any act of magic, is in some sense an act of faith ... I've seen the desert bloom, the flower that emerges from the barest hint of water, and I know the power of life will rise, stubborn and persistent to be renewed. May our actions be the wind that brings the rain.”

Knows May Action Water Magic Wind Flower Rain Desert Stubborn Persistent Our Actions Hints

Author:Starhawk

“Could anyone in his right mind speak seriously of any limited nuclear war? It should be quite clear that the aggressor's actions will instantly and inevitably trigger a devastating counterstroke by the other side. None but completely irresponsible people could maintain that a nuclear war may be made to follow rules adopted beforehand, with nuclear missiles exploding in a "gentlemanly manner" over strictly designated targets and sparing the population.”

People Should Mind May Made War Action Speak Sides Clear Population Nuclear Target Adopted Triggers Irresponsible Missiles Nuclear War Exploding Aggressors Gentlemanly Nuclear Missiles

Author:Dmitriy Ustinov

“Irresolution is a worse vice than rashness. He that shoots best may sometimes miss the mark; but he that shoots not at all can never hit it. Irresolution loosens all the joints of a state; like an ague, it shakes not this nor that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man is lifted from one place to another; so hatcheth nothing, but addles all his actions.”

Men May Sometimes States Body Action Missing Fit Mark Vices Shakes Limbs Joints Rashness

Author:Owen Feltham

“I think with any characterization there's a point where you empathize, no matter how much of a deviance his or her actions may be from your understanding of humanity.”

Thinking May Matter Action Humanity Understanding Characterization Deviance

Author:Benedict Cumberbatch

“From youth to middle, and often to past middle, age, most men are apt to be too closely engaged in the struggle of life to pay due attention to the strength of the body. They may take daily what they consider a sufficient amount of exercise; but the exercise is not calculated to keep the various limbs and muscles, still less the internal organs, in proper working order. Amid the ordinary concerns of life the man may appear strong, even stalwart. But when occasion arises for some special muscular exercise, or taxing the action of some organ, he finds out his weakness.”

“We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but because for a time they are not remembered; he may, therefore, justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.”

Mind May Action Fall Memories Known Principles Mankind Taught Errors Sentences Remembered Folly Contracts Impressed Recollection Benefactors Rules Of Life

Book:The beauties of Johnson: choice selections from his works

Source: The beauties of Johnson: choice selections from his works

“That part of a work of one author found in another is not of itself piracy, or sufficient to support an action; a man may adopt part of the work of another; he may so make use of another’s labors for the promotion of science and the benefit of the public.”

Men May Use Action Found Support Benefits Labor Sufficient Promotion Piracy

Author:Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough

“As a boy,I was extremely shy, certainly as a result of my upbringing. I was an expert blusher,and some of my harsh actions may echo this shyness by way of compensation.”

Way May Action Results Boys Experts Shy Echoes Harsh Compensation Upbringing Shyness

Author:Gunter Brus

“There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life.”

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus

“The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and, if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.”

Should Humans May Ideas Character Seems Action Perfect Pleasure United History Human Nature Attributes Respectable Roman Empire Qualifications

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“Indeed, we may go further and assert that anyone who does not delight in fine actions is not even a good man.”

Men May Doe Action Fine Delight Good Man

Author:Aristotle

“Take the case of just actions; just punishments and chastisements do indeed spring from a good principle, but they are good only because we cannot do without them - it would be better that neither individuals nor states should need anything of the sort - but actions which aim at honor and advantage are absolutely the best. The conditional action is only the choice of a lesser evil; whereas these are the foundation and creation of good. A good man may make the best even of poverty and disease, and the other ills of life.”

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“It must not be supposed that happiness will demand many or great possessions; for self-sufficiency does not depend on excessive abundance, nor does moral conduct, and it is possible to perform noble deeds even without being ruler of land and sea: one can do virtuous acts with quite moderate resources. This may be clearly observed in experience: private citizens do not seem to be less but more given to doing virtuous actions than princes and potentates. It is sufficient then if moderate resources are forthcoming; for a life of virtuous activity will be essentially a happy life.”

“Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. As in other sciences, so in politics, it is impossible that all things should be precisely set down in writing; for enactments must be universal, but actions are concerned with particulars. Hence we infer that sometimes and in certain cases laws may be changed.”

Should Writing May Has Beens Sometimes Action Law Certain Justice Cases Impossible Written Changed Ought Concerned All Things Universal

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“Strive for originality in thought and action. Be first; Be different; And be daring. Only then will you make a significant difference in this world. You may even attain greatness.”

World Firsts May Different Action Differences This World Greatness Fame Strive Significant Originality Daring Thoughts And Actions

Author:Ernie J Zelinski

“Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it may be - given the devastation it is wreaking - should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”