Quotes About Action

It is because of speech that men give the illusion of being free. If they did — without a word — what they do, we would take them for robots. By speaking, they deceive themselves, as they deceive others: because they say what they are going to do, who could suspect they are not masters of their actions?

The dissolving power of conversation. One realizes why both meditation and action require silence.

He who is lucid, understands himself, explains himself, justifies himself, and masters his acts will never execute a memorable action. Psychology is the hero's tomb.

To will, in the fullest sense of the word, is to be unaware that one wills, is to refuse to loiter over the phenomenon of the will. The man of action weighs neither his impulses nor his motives, still less does he consult his reflexes: he obeys them without reflecting upon them, without hampering them.

Nescience is the basis of everything, it creates everything by an action repeated every moment, it produces this and any world, since it continually takes for real what in fact is not. Nescience is the tremendous mistake that serves as the basis of all our truths, it is older and more powerful than all the gods combined.

If we do not regard ourselves as entrusted with a mission, existence is difficult; action, impossible.

Sauve qui peut.

All thinkers are failures of action who avenge their failure by means of concepts.

Whatever people try to do, they'll regret it sooner or later.

Renunciation is the only kind of action that is not degrading.

Someone we regard highly comes closer to us when he performs an action unworthy of him--thereby he releases us from the cavalry of veneration. And starting from that moment we feel a true attachment to him.

To exempt themselves from action, oppressed peoples entrust themselves to "fate," a negative salvation as well as a means of interpreting events: a philosophy of history for daily use, a determinist vision on an effective basis, a metaphysic of circumstance . . .

There exists an undeniable pleasure in knowing that everything you do has no real basis, that whether or not you commit an action is a matter of indifference. The fact nonetheless remains that in our daily gestures we compromise with Vacuity - that is, we turn and turn about, and occasionally, at the same time, we take the world as real and unreal. We mingle pure truth and sordid truths and this amalgam, the thinker's disgrace, is the living man's revenge.

The clear-sighted person who understands himself, explains himself, justifies himself, and dominates his action will never make a memorable gesture. Psychology is the hero's grave.

We can act only against the truth. Man starts over again every day, in spite of everything he knows, against everything he knows.

Quant aux événements privés qui passent généralement pour être les causes prochaines du suicide, ils n'ont d'autre action que celle que leur prêtent les dispositions morales de la victime, écho de l'état moral de la société.

Just as reflection disappears to the extent that thought and action take the form of automatic habits, it awakes only when accepted habits become disorganized.

To act is to anchor in an imminent future, so imminent it becomes almost tangible to act is to feel you are consubstantial with that future.

We rightly scorn those who have no made use of their defects, who have not exploited their deficiencies, and have not been enriched by their losses, as we despise any man who does not suffer at being a man or simply at being. Hence no graver insult can be inflicted than to call someone 'happy', no greater flattery than to grant him a 'vein of melancholy'... This is because gaiety is linked to no important action and because, except for the mad, no one laughs when he is alone.

Make the most of it.

Resolve to make every day count. Be a woman of action. Treat each day as precious.

Make a change today that will serve you for many more years.

Plan your action, keep it simple, and get into motion.

The problem is not the visibility of dark skin, but who sees it and what the viewer feels motivated to do next.