Duty is a very personal thing. It is what comes from knowing the need to take action and not just a need to urge others to do something. – Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The more action you take, the more progress you make.
We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions. – Isaac Bashevis Singer Quote in The New York Times Magazine
Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it. – Jack Canfield
Always do more than is required of you. – George Patton
Well done is better than well said. – Benjamin Franklin
A good example is like a bell that calls many to church. – Danish Proverb
Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out. – Italian Proverb
Action may not always be happiness, but there is no happiness without action. – Benjamin Disraeli
Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. – Will Rogers
It’s a natural law: You receive as much as you give. – Paul Karasik
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. – Helen Keller
There are two methods of human activity – and according to which one of these two kinds of activity people mainly follow, are there two kinds of people: One use their reason to learn what is good and what is bad and they act according to this knowledge; the other act as they want to and then they use their reason to prove that that which they did was good and that which they didn’t do was bad. – Leo Tolstoi
When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. – Ruskin
An athlete was never made by mere instruction. No soldier was ever trained by the mere study of his manual, but by practicing his drill. – Outlook
We shall meanly lose or nobly save the last hope on earth. – Abraham Lincoln
I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. – Elie Wiesel
To mobilize yourself, decide what you want, determine what will get you what you want, then act – do what will get you what you want most to achieve. – Nibo Qubein
It is well to think well; it is Divine to act well. – Horace Mann
Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don’t just stand there, make it happen. – Lee Iaccoca
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
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. – John Locke
Some people wait so long for their ship to come in, their pier collapses. – John Goddard
In life, as in a football game, the principle is to hit the line hard. – Theodore Roosevelt
If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don’t do it, and it won’t happen. -Joe DiMaggio
If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll get nothing done. -Norman Vincent Peale
The shortest answer is doing. – Lord Herbert
Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture. – Benedetto Croce
An old man was asked what had robbed him of joy in his life. His reply was, “Things that never happened.” -Dale Carnegie
To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only dream but also believe. – Anatole France
If you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done. – Mike Seseed
In all relationships of life, faith is worthless unless it leads to action. – Anonymous
It is always your next move. -Napoleon Hill
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. – Benjamin Disraeli
Either move or be moved. – Colin Powell
An athlete was never made by mere instruction. No soldier was ever trained by the mere study of his manual, but by practicing his drill. Not the hearers of the law, but the doers are justified before God. We must be going forward, not standing still, simply listening and learning. Where our duty is seen God is revealed. Duty is always the will of God. To see it and not to do it, is a most disastrous thing for the man, as well as being an offense against God. – Outlook
You can’t build a reputation on what you are GOING to do. – Henry Ford
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement. – Alfred Adler
A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain. – Arabian Proverb
All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them but confront them. – William F. Halsey
The best way out of a problem is through it. – Unknown
An acre of performance is worth the whole world of promise. – Clark Howell
I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. – Elie Wiesel
To mobilize yourself, decide what you want, determine what will get you what you want, then act – do what will get you what you want most to achieve. – Nibo Qubein
There is a time to let things happen, and a time to make things happen. – Anonymous
Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don’t just stand there, make it happen. – Lee Iaccoca
If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. If a man does more than is required of him, he is a free man. – Chinese Proverb
I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision. – W. Clement Stone
Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings. – Helen Keller
Swing hard in case they throw the ball where you’re swinging. – Duke Snider
I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things. – William J. Lock
Knowing is not enough; we must apply, willing is not enough; we must do. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To a large extent, whatever happens to you in life is what you make happen. – SHD
Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander. – Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
You will learn and grow according to the nature and consequences of your actions. – Robert Anthony
The life of man is made up of action and endurance; the life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or in patient perseverance. – Liddon
There are those of us who are always ‘about’ to live. We’re waiting until things change, until there is more time, until we are less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle down–until, until, until. It always seems that there is some major event that must occur in our lives before we begin living. – George Sheehan
Men of action are favored by the Goddess of luck. – George S. Clason
There are two methods of human activity — and according to which one of these two kinds of activity people mainly follow, are there two kinds of people: one use their reason to learn what is good and what is bad and they act according to this knowledge; the other act as they want to and then they use their reason to prove that that which they did was good and that which they didn’t do was bad. – Leo Tolstoi
There is no idleness without a thousand troubles. – Welsh Proverb
The world is blessed most by men who do things, and not by those who merely talk about them. –James Oliver ‘Tomorrow I will live,’ the fool does say; tomorrow itself is late; the wise live yesterday. – Martial
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lies who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. – Philip James Bailey
We will act consistently with our view of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not. – Anthony Robbins
What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you. – Mike Murdock
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. – Henry C. Link
While the fool is enjoying the little he has, I will hunt for more. The way to hunt for more is to utilize your odd moments…the man who is always killing time is really killing his own chances in life. – Arthur Brisbane
You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do. – Henry Ford
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. – Wayne Gretzky
You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee. – John H. Holcomb
Existence was given us for action, rather than indolent and aimless contemplation; our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel. They greatly mistake who suppose that God cares for no other pursuit than devotion. – E. L. Magoon
Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know. – Charles Kingsley
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. – G.K. Chesterton
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruit; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. – James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. – Orison Swett Marden
Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it. – Unknown
Do noble things, not dream them all day long: And so make Life, Death, and the vast Forever one grand, sweet song. – Charles Kingsley
Unless we perform divine service with every willing act of our life, we never perform it at all. – John Ruskin
Failures are divided into two classes — those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. – John Charles Salak
Act the part and you will become the part.- William James
If you’re passionate about something, then you should pick up your flag and run with it. – Bette Midler
Do what you fear most and you control fear. – Tom Hopkins
Don’t wait to be motivated. Take the bull by the horns until you have him screaming for mercy. – Michael Cadena
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. – Philip James Bailey
Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. – Unknown
Do today what others won’t, so you can live tomorrow how others can’t. – Bill Britt
One of the things I learned the hard way was it does not pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. – Lucille Ball
As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. – Andrew Carnegie
Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can. – Danny Kaye
When deeds speak, words are nothing. – African Proverb
He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. – Philip James Bailey
Dig the well before you’re thirsty. – Chinese Proverb
The world is blessed most by men who do things, and not by those who merely talk about them. – James Oliver
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it. – Danny Kaye
Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. – Ella Williams
We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions. – Isaac Bashevis Singer
It doesn’t matter how many people say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it. – Wally “Famous” Amos
To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them. – Hugh Prather
Many a man with no family tree has succeeded because he branched out for himself. – Leo Aikman
Men expect too much, do too little. – Allen Tate
Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve. – Tehyi Hsieh
No matter what business you’re in, you can’t run in place or someone will pass you by. – Jim Valvano
Do it! Move it! Make it happen! No one ever sat their way to success. – Unknown
All in their lifetime carve their own soul’s statue. – Thomas Buchanan Reed
If you don’t want anyone to know it, don’t do it. – Chinese Proverb
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke
God gives every bird his worm, but He doesn’t throw it into the nest. – Swedish Proverb
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. – James Baldwin
No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his live, in a great cause. – Theodore Roosevelt
In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become JUST by doing JUST acts, TEMPERATE by doing TEMPERATE acts, BRAVE by doing BRAVE acts. – Aristotle
When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. – Unknown
Mend the pen only after the sheep are all gone. – Chinese Proverb
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. – Unknown Quote
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. – G.K. Chesterton
There are so many things that we are capable of, that we could be or do. The potentialities are so great that we never, any of us, are more than one-fourth fulfilled. – Katherine Anne Porter
If I set for myself a task, be it so trifling, I shall see it through. How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things? – George Clason
Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live. – Nicolas de Chamfort
Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed. – The Bible, Proverbs 16:3
The first step binds one to the second. – French Proverb
Talk doesn’t cook rice. – Chinese Proverb
Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. – Edmund Burke
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others. – Baltasar Gracian
If ifs were gifts, every day would be Christmas. – Charles Barkley
Action is eloquence. – William Shakespeare
Everybody ought to do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. – William James
You can’t run a society or cope with its problems if people are not held accountable for what they do. – John Leo
Do it now. Then it’s done. – Unknown
At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action. – Bono, U2
A problem is a chance for you to do your best. – Duke Ellington
Quotes About Action Page 2