Quotes About Action

We are all held in a single honor, the brave with the weaklings. 320  A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.

O great shamelessness, we followed

Tú pasa adentro y no te turbes en tu ánimo, pues un hombre con arrojo resulta ser el mejor en toda acción, aunque llegue de otra tierra.

Aya?a kalkt?m.

Now there was no sign of any foul weather, but when one wishes to do a thing . . . one finds no lack of reasons for the doing.

People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it.

There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,can transform the world.

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can change the world.

You can't be neutral on a moving train," I would tell them. Some were baffled by the metaphor, especially if they took it literally and tried to dissect its meaning. Others immediately saw what I meant: that events are already moving in certain deadly directions, and to be neutral means to accept that.

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no government can suppress, a power than can transform the world.

a good education is a synthesis of book learning and involvement in social action, because each enrich the other. The accumulation of knowledge, while fascinating in itself, is not sufficient without action

You can't be neutral on a moving train

Missing from such histories are the countless small actions of unknown people that led up to those great moments. When we understand this, we can see that the tiniest acts of protest in which we engage may become the invisible roots of social change.

Aldous Huxley: "Liberties are not given, they are taken.

The President of the United States isn't going to solve our problems. The problems are too big.

Our ethos is all that we currently hold to be true. It is what we act upon. It governs our manners, our business, and our politics.

ATTENTION ANTI-RENTERS! AWAKE! AROUSE! . . . Strike till the last armed foe expires, Strike for your altars and your fires- Strike for the green graves of your sires, God and your happy homes!

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents. And to live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

The essential ingredients of these struggles for justice are human beings who, if only for a moment, if only while beset with fears, step out of line and do something, however small. And even the smallest, most unheroic of acts adds to the store of kindling that may be ignited by some surprising circumstance into tumultuous change.

Zinn is writing in response to the timeless questions that burn within anyone who cares about creating a more just society and world. Is change possible? Where will it come from? Can we actually make a difference? How do you remain hopeful?

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.