The individual activity of one man with backbone will do more than a thousand men with a mere wishbone.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
The keen spirit seizes the prompt occasion; makes the thought start into instant action, and at once plans and performs, resolves, and executes!
—Hannah More
Act—act in the living present.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than to push forward pluckily and make a fall.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Above all, try something.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Indifference and inaction must always pay a penalty.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
The end of man is action.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Ideas are one thing, and what happens is another.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer
If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.
—Stanley Kubrick (1928–99) American Film Director, Writer, Film Producer, Photographer
Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
Stagnation is something worse than death: it is corruption also.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Historian, Novelist, Editor
Delay not to seize the hour.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Words are mere bubbles of water, but deeds are drops of gold.
—Chinese Proverb
Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something, while to secure it in this world we must needs do something.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind him.
—Dutch Proverb
In putting off what one has to do, one runs the risk of never being able to do it.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
If a man wants his dreams to come true, he must wake up.
—Unknown
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
The biggest sin is sitting on your ass.
—Florynce Kennedy (1916–2000) American Lawyer, Civil Rights Leader, Feminist, Activist
Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
With mere good intentions hell is Proverbially paved.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Every beginning is hard.
—Unknown
If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Delay always breeds danger, and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
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