Quotes About Action

Great ideas originate in the muscles.

Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet more apt for contemplation.

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

In deliberation we may hesitate; but a deliberated act must be performed swiftly.

Now in matters of action the reason directs all things in view of the end:

The act that anything evil puts forth is due to the strength of goodness, but a deficient goodness. For if there were nothing of good there, neither would there be any being, nor any action: again, if the goodness were not deficient, neither would there be any evil.

God is not offended except by our acting contrary to our own good

To sin is to fall short of a perfect action; hence to be able to sin is to be able to fall short in action, which is repugnant to omnipotence.

Agere sequitur esse.

Every agent makes its like

Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.

Every man who has seen the world knows that nothing is so useless as a general maxim.... If, like those of Rochefoucault, it be sparkling and whimsical, it may make an excellent motto for an essay. But few, indeed, of the many wise apophthegms which have been uttered from the time of the Seven Sages of Greece to that of Poor Richard have prevented a single foolish action.

Whatever condition we are in, we must always do what we want to do, and if we want to go on a journey, then we must do so and not worry about our condition, even if it's the worst possible condition, because, if it is, we're finished anyway, whether we go on the journey or not, and it's better to die having made the journey we're been longing for than to be stifled by our longing.

Surely it is more honourable to do great things, than to speak or read great things!...When a Christian has one eye upon his book, the other should be looking up to heaven for a blessing upon what he reads.

When congregations hold passive views of human responsibility, the evidence is that they are not growing. If some teaching claims to be the Gospel but does nothing in response, does not elicit any compassionate action, then it is surely not the Gospel. The fantasy of a gospel that does nothing is not the good news of the New Testament.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

If you don't wish a man to do a thing you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

A force as of madness in the hands of reason has done all that was ever done in the world.

Be not a slave of words.

No lie you can speak or act but it will come, after longer or shorter circulation, like a bill drawn on Nature's Reality, and be presented there for payment—with the answer, No effects.