Quotes About Inaction

Getting out to protest, this is something real and, I would say, something patriotic. Part of the new authoritarianism is to get people to prefer fiction and inaction to reality and action.

I don't mind if they don't do anything. I don't see why they should; in fact it always astonishes me when anybody does anything.

We live by action—by acting on desire. Those of us who don't know how to want—whether geniuses or beggars—are related by impotence.

To live strikes me as a metaphysical mistake of matter, a dereliction of inaction.

To choose ways of not acting was ever the concern and scruple of my life.

I find the slightest action impossible, as if it were some heroic deed. The mere thought of making the smallest gesture weighs on me as if it were something I was actually considering doing.

I cultivate hatred of action like a greenhouse flower.

13] Incluso pensar así es actuar. Sólo en el devaneo absoluto, donde nada de lo activo interviene, donde al fin hasta nuestra consciencia de nosotros mismos se atasca en el lodo —sólo así, en ese húmedo y blando no-ser, se consigue competentemente renunciar a la acción.   No querer comprender, no analizar... Verse a uno mismo como a la Naturaleza; observar sus propias impresiones como quien observa un campo —esto es la sabiduría.

No, we don't feel anything. We consciously pass through the door we have to enter, and the fact we have to enter it is enough to put us to sleep.

These people are fascinated by me, but I haven't done anything.

It sometimes feels like I'm not doing anything.

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

In any bureaucracy, there's a natural tendency to let the system become an excuse for inaction.

When I was in high school in the early 1970s, we knew we were running out of oil; we knew that easy sources were being capped; we knew that diversifying would be much better; we knew that there were terrible dictators and horrible governments that we were enriching who hated us. We knew all that and we did really nothing.

I'm a terrible procrastinator.

All of my life, when things got too difficult, I folded up the tent and went to bed. I couldn't stand a challenge... I was terrified of confrontation. I was very laid-back, and just wouldn't get involved or fight back.

Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.

Surely our inaction with respect to Syria is a poor precedent if we're fighting a war on terror.

Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than "laziness" is the real reason you find it hard to get started

Take action and be brave Theodor for it is fear and inaction that kills.

When you fear to fail, you fear something that has not happened yet. You predict your own failure, and by inaction, lock yourself into it.

Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It's not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed.

Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It's not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed." "Even when it's stupid to try?" he asked with savage sarcasm. "Especially then," she replied sweetly.

Churches are political even when they refuse to act politically, because silence is a form of complicity and thus an endorsement of the status quo.