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Action Quotes

“Not only did waging war against Hitler fail to save the Jews, it may be that the war itself brought on the Final Solution of genocide. This is not to remove the responsibility from Hitler and the Nazis, but there is much evidence that Germany's anti-Semitic actions, cruel as they were, would not have turned to mass murder were it not for the psychic distortions of war, acting on already distorted minds. Hitler's early aim was forced emigration, not extermination, but the frenzy of it created an atmosphere in which the policy turned to genocide.”

MindMayWarActionActingResponsibilityFailingPolicyMassSolutionsEvidenceMurderAimFinalsJewAtmosphereGermanyRemoveGenocideNaziPsychicsDistortionFrenzyExterminationAnti SemiticEmigrationWaging War
Book:The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
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“I believe there is no other difference between those who are called courageous and those who are branded craven than that the second are fearful before the danger and the first after it. No one can be much frightened, certainly, during a period of great and immanent peril -- the mind is too much concentrated on the thing itself, and on the actions necessary to meet or avoid it. The coward is a coward, then, because he has brought his fear with him; persons we think cowardly will sometimes amaze us by their bravery, if they have had no forewarning of their danger.”

IfsThinkingMindFirstsBelievePersonsSometimesActionI BelieveDifferencesToo MuchDangerPeriodsBraveryCourageousCowardFrightenedFearfulCowardicePerilCowardlyBranded
Author:Gene Wolfe
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“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).”

WorldWayShouldMindMayPersonsActionFormBornCarExampleMovementObjectsTheoryResearchBasesPaintPortraitsOutlookStaticBallerinaSpeedingInanimate ObjectsFuturistSpeeding Cars
Author:Gino Severini
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“This is the path of prayer-contemplative prayer, that is, as distinct from simple prayers of supplication and thanksgiving-which is a specific discipline of thought, desire, and action, one that frees the mind from habitual prejudices and appetites, and allows it to dwell in the gratuity and glory of all things. As an old monk on Mount Athos once told me, contemplative prayer is the art of seeing reality as it truly is; and, if one has not yet acquired the ability to see God in all things, one should not imagine that one will be able to see God in himself.”

IfsShouldMindArtRealityAbleActionDesirePrayerSimpleAbilityPathImagineSeeingDisciplineGloryAll ThingsPrejudiceAppetiteImagine ThatMonkHabitualContemplativeAbility To SeeSupplicationContemplative PrayerGratuity
Author:David Bentley
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“Whatever your conscious mind assumes and believes to be true, your subconscious mind will accept and bring to pass. Believe in good fortune, divine guidance, right action, and all the blessings of life.”

MindBelieveActionAcceptingDivineBlessingConsciousAssumingFortuneBeing TrueGuidanceSubconsciousGood FortuneSubconscious MindConscious MindRight ActionDivine GuidancePower Subconscious Mind
Book:Putting the Power of Your Subconscious Mind to Work: Reach New Levels of Career Success Using the Power of Your Subconscious Mind
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“There is a broad distinction between religion and theology. The one is a natural, human experience common to all well-organized minds. The other is a system of speculations about the unseen and the unknowable, which the human mind has no power to grasp or explain, and these speculations vary with every sect, age, and type of civilization. No one knows any more of what lies beyond our sphere of action than thou and I, and we know nothing.”

KnowsMindHumansWellsAgeActionLyingNaturalCommonAtheismTypeCivilizationPositive AtheismTheologyOrganizedDistinctionHuman MindBroadsSpheresUnseenSpeculationHuman ExperienceVarySectsOrganized Mind
Author:Lucretia Mott
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“To me, acting is a matter of absolute concentration. You can laugh and giggle with your friends up to the minute the director says, "Action!" Then you snap your mind into shape and into the character that you're playing and relate to the people that you're acting with and forget everybody else that you've been joking with.”

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Author:Elizabeth Taylor
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“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.”

IfsWantMindWellsMayHas BeensStatesCharacterActionSpiritualAsksEnergyMeditationProgressAwarenessJudgingMastersDevelopmentJudgmentLifetimeGreedCalmSelflessMysticalConditioningCharacter DevelopmentProvocationSpiritual AwarenessSounder
Author:Eknath Easwaran
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“By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages.”

GivingFeelsMindHumansAgeActionReadingNationsHurtInfluenceEnthusiasmImmortalityFlamesSentimentsThoughts And ActionsHuman Thought
Book:The Letters of William Hazlitt
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“A life without an objective is much like a ship at sea with no port in mind. It drifts with the waves or storms, or with the whim of the captain. They are tempted to ask, amidst the battles of life, "Is the struggle worth-while?" That attitude lessens the joy of living. They who say that there is no purpose in life are not unhappy, but become dangerous to themselves and others, for they have no safe guide for their actions. Indeed, life has not objective save physical satisfactions, it is empty and valueless.”

MindActionLife IsJoyPurposeAsksAttitudeStruggleSeaDangerousBattleSafeEmptyWaveSatisfactionStormGuidesUnhappyObjectivesShipsPurpose Of LifeCaptainsTemptedPortWhimJoy Of LivingShips At SeaValuelessBattle Of Life
Author:John Andreas Widtsoe
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“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.”

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Book:Literary essays; Among my books, My study windows, Fireside travels
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“It is legitimate to have one's own point of view and political philosophy. But there are people who make anger, rather than a deeply held belief, the basis of their actions. They do not seem to mind harming society as a whole in the pursuit of their immediate objective. No society can survive if it yields to the demands of frenzy, whether of the few or the many.”

PeopleIfsMindPhilosophyWholeSeemsActionPoliticalPoliticsBeliefViewsPartyDemandBasesPoint Of ViewPursuitObjectivesYieldPolitical PartiesPolitical PhilosophyFrenzy
Book:Education, individual, and society: selected addresses
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“Happy are those lovers who, when their senses require rest, can fall back upon the intellectual enjoyments afforded by the mind! Sweet sleep then comes, and lasts until the body has recovered its general harmony. On awaking, the senses are again active and always ready to resume their action.”

MindBodyActionLastsFallPassionSleepReadySweetLoversIntellectualHarmonyActiveSensesEnjoymentResumesFall BackSweet Sleep
Book:The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt Volume 2: To Paris and Prison
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“The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities of higher education, for the full development of her faculties, forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear - is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.”

GivingMindReasonBodyActionFormOpportunityIndividualForceResponsibilityInfluenceDevelopmentHigherSolitudeFacultyCustomsStrongestSuperstitionsWomens RightsDependenceBondageMind And BodyPersonal ResponsibilityFreedom Of ThoughtEmancipationHigher EducationThoughts And ActionsIndividual Life
Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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“Are you in a universe which is ruled by natural laws and, therefore, is stable, firm, absolute - and knowable? Or are you in an incomprehensible chaos, a realm of inexplicable miracles, an unpredictable, unknowable flux, which your mind is impotent to grasp? The nature of your actions - and of your ambition - will be different, according to which set of answers you come to accept.”

MindDifferentActionLawReligionUniverseNaturalAnswersAcceptingAmbitionMiracleAbsolutesChaosFirmRealmsStableUnpredictableNatural LawInexplicableFlux
Book:Philosophy: Who Needs It
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“By wit we search divine aspect above, By wit we learn what secrets science yields, By wit we speak, by wit the mind is rul'd, By wit we govern all our actions; Wit is the loadstar of each human thought, Wit is the tool by which all things are wrought.”

MindHumansActionSpeakSecretDivineAspectToolsAll ThingsWitYieldOur ActionsHuman Thought
Book:The dramatic and poetical works: With memoirs of the authors and notes
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“Any base heart can devise means of vileness, and affix the ugly shapings of its own fancy to the actions of those around him; but it requires loftiness of mind, and the heaven-born spirit of virtue, to imagine greatness where it is not, and to deck the sordid objects of nature in the beautiful robes of loveliness and light.”

MindHeartMeanLightActionBeautifulSpiritHeavenBornVirtueImagineObjectsGreatnessUglyFancySuspicionDeckRobesLoveliness
Book:Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
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“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.”

PeopleShouldMindMayMadeWarActionSpeakSidesClearPopulationNuclearTargetAdoptedTriggersIrresponsibleMissilesNuclear WarExplodingAggressorsGentlemanlyNuclear Missiles
Author:Dmitriy Ustinov
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“Another simple and powerful way to dissolve problems is not to dwell upon the outcome of your actions. Instead, learn to value each action (no matter how small or large), to do it with complete attention. Your joy and satisfaction comes from doing each action with a whole heart and mind. Results and consequences then take care of themselves. When you are not absorbed by concern for outcomes, how much anxiety can you ever have?”

WayMindHeartMatterWholeProblemCareActionJoyValuesSimpleResultsPowerfulAttentionLearningAnxietyConsequenceConcernSatisfactionTake CareOutcomesHeart And MindPower Of The Mind
Author:Brenda Shoshanna
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“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.”

MindMayActionFallMemoriesKnownPrinciplesMankindTaughtErrorsSentencesRememberedFollyContractsImpressedRecollectionBenefactorsRules Of Life
Book:The beauties of Johnson: choice selections from his works
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“this is what I know about courage: You don't have to think about courage to have it. You don't have to feel courageous to be courageous. You don't sit down and say you're going to be courageous. At the moment of action, you don't see it as a courageous act. Courage is the most hidden thing from your eye or mind until after it's done. There's some inner something that tells you what's right. You know you have to do it to survive as a human being. You have no choice.”

ThinkingKnowsFeelsMindHumansDoneMomentsEyeActionChoicesHuman BeingsCourageDown AndCourageousBe CourageousHidden Things
Book:Barefootin': Life Lessons from the Road to Freedom
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“At moments of departure and a change of life, people capable of reflecting on their actions usually get into a serious state of mind. At these moments they usually take stock of the past and make plans for the future.”

PeopleMindStatesMomentsActionPastPlansSeriousCapableLife ChangingState Of MindReflectingDeparture
Book:War and Peace: Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
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“I have a graduate degree from Penn State. I studied at Penn State under a noted Hemingway scholar, Philip Young. I had an interest in thrillers, and it occurred to me that Hemingway wrote many action scenes: the war scenes in 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' come to mind. But the scenes don't feel pulpy.”

FeelsMindWarStatesActionYoungInterestArmsSceneDegreesGraduatesScholarBellsFarewellThrillersTollsPhilipFarewell To ArmsWhom The Bell TollsPenn State
Author:David Morrell
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“We have got to defeat this attack on the freedom of the mind...But it takes courage for a young man with a family to stand up to it; all the more obligation on those of us who have nothing left to lose. At any age it is better to be a dead lion than a living dog - though better still, of course, to be a living and victorious lion - but it is easier to run the risk of being killed (or fired) in action if before long you are going to be dead anyway. This freedom seems to me the chief consolation of old age.”

IfsMenMindLongStillsSeemsRunningAgeActionYoungCoursesLeftLosesRiskDogEasierDefeatObligationOld AgeChiefsYoung ManLionsConsolation
Author:Elmer Davis
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