Action

"And if God had willed, He could have made you (of) one single people, but He causes to stray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. And you will surely be account for all your actions."

"On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will bear witness against them as to their actions."

"It is some time since so few have been asked to do so much for so many on so little."

"Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears."

"the blood more stirs To rouse a lion, than to start a hare."

"I profess not talking: only this, Let each man do his best."

"We must not stint Our necessary actions, in the fear To cope malicious censurers."

"Things done well, And with a care, exempt themselves from fear; Things done without example, in their issue Are to be fear'd."

"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."

"From this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done."

"But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm, Is often laudable; to do good, sometime, Accounted dangerous folly."

"What's done can't be undone."

"So smile the Heavens upon this holy act That after hours with sorrow chide us not!"

"How my achievements mock me! I will go meet them."

"Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act."

"If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten."

"So many worlds, so much to do, So little done, such things to be."

"Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die."

"Nothing is more necessary to the cultivation of the advanced sciences or of the elevated portion of sciences than meditation, and there is nothing less fit for meditation than the interior of a democratic society. One does not encounter there, as in aristocratic peoples, a numerous class that stays at rest because it finds itself well-off and another than does not move because it despairs of being better off. Everyone is agitated: some want to attain power, others to take possession of wealth. In the midst of this universal tumult, the repeated collision of contrary interests, the continual advance of men toward fortune, where does one find the calm necessary to the profound combinations of the intellect? how does each man bring his thought to a stop at such and such a point, when everything moves around him and he himself is carried along and tossed about every day in the impetuous current that swirls all things along?"

"Not only do men living in democratic societies give themselves over to meditation with difficulty, but they naturally have little esteem for it. The democratic social state and institutions bring most men to act continually; yet the habits of mind suited to action are not always suited to thought. The man who acts is often reduced to contenting himself with that is nearly so because he would never arrive at the end of his design if he wished to perfect every detail. He must constantly rely on ideas that he has not had the leisure to fathom, for it is much more the timeliness of the idea he makes use if than its rigorous exactness that helps him; and all in all, there is less risk for him in making use of some false principle than in wasting his time establishing the truth of all his principles. It is not by long and learned demonstrations that the world is led. There, the quick look at a particular fact, the daily study of the changing passions of the crowd, the chance of the moment and the skill to seize it decide affairs."

"Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it's no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing. Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don't let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it. If there is truly nothing that you can do to change your here and now, and you can't remove yourself from the situation, then accept your here and now totally by dropping all inner resistance. The false, unhappy self that loves feeling miserable, resentful, or sorry for itself can then no longer survive. This is called surrender. Surrender is not weakness. There is great strength in it. Only a surrendered person has spiritual power."

"The wisest man is he who can account for his actions."

"A slender acquaintance with the world, must convince every man, that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends; and that the most liberal professions of good-will are far from being the surest marks of it."

"We cannot think first and act afterwards. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought."

"Be thy best thoughts to work divine addressed; Do something,— do it soon — will all thy might; An angel's wing would droop if long at rest, And God Himself inactive were no longer blessed."

"But man, being, as I have said, essentially an active being, he must find in activity his joy, as well as his duty and glory. And labor, like every thing else that is good, is its own exceeding great reward."

"Action is transitory—a step, a blow— The motion of a muscle—this way or that— 'Tis done; and in the after-vacancy We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed."

"And all may do what has by man been done."

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."

"Go, and do thou likewise."

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."

"Iron sharpeneth iron."

"Let us do or die."

"What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted."

"The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new."

"He is at no end of his actions blest Whose ends will make him greatest and not best."

"Quod est, eo decet uti: et quicquid agas, agere pro viribus."

"Zeus hates busybodies and those who do too much."

"A fiery chariot, borne on buoyant pinions, Sweeps near me now! I soon shall ready be To pierce the ether's high, unknown dominions, To reach new spheres of pure activity!"

"Do well and right, and let the world sink."

"Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting, where, And when, and how thy business may be done. Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveller, Though he alights sometimes still goeth on."

"The shortest answer is doing."

"Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing's so hard but search will find it out."

"It is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebræ which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies, do a thing—"carry a message to Garcia.""

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

"Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds."

"Quelque éclatante que soit une action, elle ne doit pas passer pour grande, lorsqu'elle n'est pas l'effet d'un grand dessein."

"No action, whether foul or fair, Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere A record, written by fingers ghostly, As a blessing or a curse, and mostly In the greater weakness or greater strength Of the acts which follow it."

"The good one, after every action, closes His volume, and ascends with it to God. The other keeps his dreadful day-book open Till sunset, that we may repent; which doing, The record of the action fades away, And leaves a line of white across the page Now if my act be good, as I believe, It cannot be recalled. It is already Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished. The rest is yours."

"Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act,—act in the living Present! Heart within and God o'erhead."