Quotes About Action

As a motivation —for humans, but Christians especially— guilt is always wrong and can never move them to do anything He wants of them. Never let them realize that.

You don't change the world by telling it what to do, sitting at home, and telling it what you believe. You believe by throwing yourself into it. Making a leap, getting involved, then waiting, taking some one person's place for a while, one suffering person at a time.

Indeed if they ever once saw the endless supply of eternal opportunities The Adversary offers them every temporal moment of day after day of their fuddled little lives, they would stagger at the sheer industry and prodigality of His efforts. Conversely, if they ever gained a glimpse of how their ordinary actions actually effect and shape things not only under time but without, the very vast weight of that would almost certainly end in their becoming humble.

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.

I am confident of my ability to demonstrate that one can sometimes believe in something and yet not believe in it. Nothing is less fathomable than the systems that motivate our actions.

Raja-Yoga (the path of contemplation), Hatha-Yoga (the path of physical transformation), Jnana-Yoga (the path of knowledge), Karma-Yoga (the path of ego-free action), Bhakti-Yoga (the path of the heart), Mantra-Yoga (the path of mantric repetition), and Tantra-Yoga (the path of ritual).

But what of the voice and judgment of conscience? The difficulty is that we have a conscience behind our conscience, an intellectual one behind the moral. We can see quite well that our opinions of what is noble and good, our moral valuations, are powerful levers where action is concerned; but we must begin by refining these opinions and independently creating for ourselves new tables of values.

Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it.

I rise today to offer a formal and heartfelt apology to all the victims of lynching in our history, and for the failure of the United States Senate to take action when action was most needed.

The moment for action has arrived, and I know that I can trust in you to save our country.

The hand is thought of as the slave of action. But the slave of action is the master of expression.

Don't think, dear, do.

Why are you stingy with yourselves? Why are you holding back? What are you saving for—for another time? There are no other times. There is only now. Right now.

What are you waiting for? What are you saving for? Now is all there is.

What are you waiting for? Now is all there is!

Notice that the unchurched show little interest in attending a church known for the quality of its worship music or even the quality of its sermons. Millions of churchless adults are very sensitive to the balance between teaching and street-level ministry; they fear getting connected to a congregation that is all talk and no action.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.

Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.

Until the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.

Suppose the world were only one of God's jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?

A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.

Activity is the only road to knowledge.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.