Quotes About Inaction

With all the confusion in the world these days, no matter how often I point the way, what good does it do? And if I know it does no good and still make myself do it, this too is a kind of confusion. So it is best to leave things alone and not force them. If I don't force things, at least I won't cause anyone any worry.

Whether we consider Nazi Germany or Abu Ghraib prison, there were many people who observed what was happening and said nothing. At Abu Ghraib, one photo shows two soldiers smiling before a pyramid of naked prisoners while a dozen other soldiers stand around watching passively. If you observe such abuses and don't say, "This is wrong! Stop it!" you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable.

What is called "apathy" is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness on the part of the ordinary citizen, a feeling of impotence in the face of enormous power. It's not that people are apathetic; they do care about what is going on, but don't know what to do about it, so they do nothing, and appear to be indifferent.

Bad enough, but he was limp and vacant, passive and beyond caring. A walking invitation to the kind of man who doesn't need an invitation, prefers not to be invited.

The reason evil can triumph is because the good people either do nothing or turn a blind eye. Thus the serious threat to the Peace in our world is coming from not only the evil people but also from the good people who opt to do nothing.

seems to be that at some level of consciousness, Whites realize that they have lived lies of self-deception and that they do hold responsibility for the current oppression of people of color in the United States, whether through action or inaction (Helms, 1992; Spanierman, Poteat, Beer & Armstrong, 2006; Tatum, 1992).

To betray is to act against, I just haven't acted at all - China Sorrows

Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

Authentic leaders are often accused of being "controlling" by those who idly sit by and do nothing

Everything that exists in your life, does so because of two things: something you did or something you didn't do.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.

On Climate Change:) We know not only what we need to do, we have the capacity to do it. It is simply that we are not doing it. So that's one hope.

What could she do? Nothing. Nor did she want to. There was a choice in not making a choice. She released the sphere, let it hover there in the air.

To refrain from an act is no less an act than to commit one.

One expects decent people to stand up for the good of all. Decent people shut their doors and hide behind them as decent people do. Massacres could never happen if it weren't for decent people.

I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.

For the space of half a year, the gunpowder lay as harmless as sand, because no fire came near to explode it.

You did respond—your response was the worst kind—you did nothing.

Better to drown in the surf than stand idly by the shore.

On les écouta, on compatit, on s'indigna, on promit, mais on ne bougea pas une lance

Most presidents place faith in action; the modern presidency is perpetual motion. Coolidge made virtue of inaction.

This shortfall can be traced to the law of supply and demand, and to a mix of government inaction when action was needed, and intervention when it would have been better to leave well enough alone.

God, having created his Universe, has now screwed the cap on His pen, put His feet on the mantelpiece and left the work to get on with itself.