Quotes About Inaction

people expect to have stronger emotional reactions (including regret) to an outcome that is produced by action than to the same outcome when it is produced by inaction. This

I can best describe our state as a form of lethargy- an unwillingness to think about what had happened. So we carried on.

A bright man of conviction and action is a beacon to his country, but a flash light to the scurrying of inaction, ego, and insecurity of lesser men.

No one intervened—hardly surprising, thought Rosner, for intervention would have been intolerant—and no one thought to comfort him as he lay dying.

most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions.

To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.

To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing." I can't help millions of people change their lives by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

President John F. Kennedy said, "There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

Imagine a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. That is the equivalent of what we face now [with climate change], yet we dither.

Failing to act is action, and though there are a lot of people talking, they are not taking action.

When machinery functions perfectly it ceases to be there-but so do we. Radios and films allow us to be where we are not and not be where we are. Moreover, machinery is veiling. It is a way of hiding our inaction from ourselves under what appear to be actions of great effectiveness. We persuade ourselves that, comfortably seated behind the wheels of our autos, shielded from every unpleasant change of weather, and raising or lowering our foot an inch or two, we have actually traveled somewhere.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

We can make up for our actions. But for our inactions, what we fail to do ...

Just spinning around, lost in their own little world. Doing so much, accomplishing so little. How sad.

You had decided to take the action, whatever it was."   "Yes."   "Yes. It involved perhaps a period of inaction."   "Of comparative inaction—yes."   "Of suspense, shall we say?"   "Yes—of suspense, certainly."   "Possibly

I'm never going to accomplish anything; that's perfectly clear to me. I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.

tolerance is] the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.

Smith, quoting British philosopher Edmund Burke, ended Who Speaks for Birmingham? by saying: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Only a fool would sit on the sidelines hoping for something worthy of mention to happen to them

We cannot simply allow the treacherous few determine the fates of themany. At such times, the virtuous should be held to equalaccountability of the vile for their inactions

A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed into inaction.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing.

I have seen that our best presidents were the do-nothing presidents: Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding. When you have a president who does things, we are all in serious trouble. If he does anything at all, if he gets up at night to go the bathroom, somehow, mystically, trouble will ensue.