Quotes About Action

Everyone requires a story to structure their perceptions and actions in what would otherwise be the overwhelming chaos of being.

Before the dawn of the scientific worldview, reality was construed differently. Being was understood as a place of action, not a place of things.31 It was understood as something more akin to story or drama. That story or drama was lived, subjective experience, as it manifested itself moment to moment in the consciousness of every living person.

People create their worlds with the tools they have directly at hand. Faulty tools produce faulty results. Repeated use of the same faulty tools produces the same faulty results.

Before the dawn of the scientific worldview, reality was construed differently. Being was understood as a place of action, not a place of things.

What could I do, that I would do, to make Life a little better?" You are not dictating to yourself what "better" must be.

What is it that is bothering me?" "Is that something I could fix?" and "Would I actually be willing to fix it?

If we start aiming at something different—something like "I want my life to be better"—our minds will start presenting us with new information, derived from the previously hidden world, to aid us in that pursuit. Then we can put that information to use and move, and act, and observe, and improve.

if you cannot understand why someone did ?something, look at the consequences—and infer the motivation.

The 'natural,' pre-experimental, or mythical mind is in fact primarily concerned with meaning - which is essentially implication for action - and not with 'objective' nature.

those who avoid their destiny by standing back when asked to step forward also deprive everyone else of the advantages that may have come their way had the person who took the easy way instead determined to be all they could be.

Si no hubieras decidido que lo que estás haciendo ahora es mejor que las alternativas, no lo estarías haciendo.

No one standing still can triumph, no matter how well constituted.

What could I do, that I would do, to make Life a little better?

And if you're not thinking such things through, then you're not acting responsibly as a parent. You're leaving the dirty work to someone else, who will be much dirtier doing it.

Say what you mean, so that you can find out what you mean. Act out what you say, so you can find out what happens. Then pay attention. Note your errors.

A creature that cannot think must solely embody its Being. It can merely act out its nature, concretely, in the here-and-now. If it cannot manifest in its behavior what the environment demands while doing so, it will simply die. But that is not true of human beings. We can produce abstracted representations of potential modes of Being. We can produce an idea in the theatre of the imagination. We can test it out against our other ideas, the ideas of

Even when satisfied, temporarily, we remain curious. We live within a framework that defines the present as eternally lacking and the future as eternally better. If we did not see things this way, we would not act at all. We wouldn't even be able to see, because to see we must focus, and to focus we must pick one thing above all else on which to focus.

What shall I do when I despise what I have? Remember those who have nothing and strive to be grateful.

Then you ask yourself, "What could I do, that I would do, that would accomplish that, and what small thing would I like as a reward?" Then you do what you have decided to do, even if you do it badly. Then you give yourself that damn coffee, in triumph.

When you don't know what to do, you must be prepared to do anything and everything, in case it becomes necessary. You're sitting in your car with the gas and brake pedals both punched to the mat. Too much of that and everything falls apart.

Face the demands of life voluntarily.

Part of moving Beyond Order is knowing when you have such a reason. Part of moving Beyond Order is understanding that your conscience has a primary claim on your action, which supersedes your conventional social duty.

If you act properly, your actions allow you to be psychologically integrated now, and tomorrow, and into the future, while you benefit yourself, your family, and the broader world around you.

First error: Freud failed to notice that sins of omission contributed to mental illness as much as, or more than, the sins of commission, listed above, that constitute repression. In doing so, he merely thought in the typical manner. People generally believe that actively doing something bad (that is the sin of commission) is, on average, worse than passively not doing something good (that is the sin of omission).