Action Quotes - Page 27

• Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense, every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sacrifice, Self, Desire

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.28, Simon and Schuster

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• English plays, Atrocious in content, Absurd in form, Objectionable in action, Execrable EnglishTheatre.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Play, Absurd, Form

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• Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Destiny, Men, Existence

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• Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures To restless action spurs our fate! Cursed when for soft, indulgent leisures, He lays for us the pillows straight.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Fate, Spurs, Treasure

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1872). “Faust: A Tragedy”, p.57

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• The so called unconscious inferences can be traced back to the all-preserving memory, which presents us with parallel experiences and hence already knows the consequences of an action. It is not anticipation of the effects; rather, it is the feeling: identical causes, identical effects . . .

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Memories, Feelings, Causes

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1999). “Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations”, p.48, Stanford University Press

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• Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.

  Laozi

  Failure, Rushing, Trying

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• Art, unless it leads to right action, is no more than the opium of an intelligentsia.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Morality, Opium

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• Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Humility, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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• If people maintain the belief systems that empower them, they'll keep coming back with enough action and enough resourcefulness to succeed eventually.

  Tony Robbins

  People, Empowering, Succeed

  Tony Robbins (2008). “Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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• Grace is God's love in action for those who don't deserve it.

  Robert H. Schuller

  Love, Grace, Deserve

  Robert H. Schuller (1991). “Inspirational Writings of Robert H. Schuller”, Bristol Park Books

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• Everyone has a right to his own course of action.

  Moliere

  Courses

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• Our actions are neither so good nor so evil as our impulses.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Evil, Our Actions, Goodness

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• Watch your actions, they become your habits.

  Winston Churchill

  Watches, Habit

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• Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Book, Paper, Waste

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• The conscious utterance of thought, by speech or action, to any end, is art.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Utterance, Speech

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2409, Delphi Classics

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• If thou workest at that which is before thee ... expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Men, Able, Sound

  Marcus Aurelius (2016). “Meditations”, p.20, Enhanced Media Publishing

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• When a woman wants to betray her husband, her actions are almost invariably studied but they are never reasoned.

  Honore de Balzac

  Husband, Betrayal, Want

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• There is not first understanding and then action. When you understand, that very understanding is action.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Understanding, Firsts

  Jiddu Krishnamurti, Susunaga Weeraperuma (1996). “Sayings of J. Krishnamurti”, p.3, Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

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• If we want to change existing conditions, we must first transform ourselves, which means that we must become aware of our own actions, thoughts and feelings in everyday life.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Change, Life Changing, Mean

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2012). “Social Responsibility”, p.72, Krishnamurti Foundation of America

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• Style! style! why, all writers will tell you that it is the very thing which can least of all be changed. A man's style is nearly as much a part of him as his physiognomy, his figure, the throbbing of this pulse,--in short, as any part of his being is at least subjected to the action of the will.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Men, Style, Pulse

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• It is faith, and not reason, which impels men to action... Intelligence is content to point out the road, but never drives us along it.

  Alexis Carrel

  Faith, Men, Reason

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• Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather have eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

  William Shakespeare

  Country, Son, Patriotism

  William Shakespeare, William Harness, William Gilmore Simms (1842). “The Complete Works of William Shakspeare”, p.627

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• Why, universal plodding poisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries, As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigor of the traveller.

  William Shakespeare

  Work, Long, Poison

  William Shakespeare (2016). “Love's Labor's Lost”, p.171, Simon and Schuster

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• In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.

  Eric Hoffer

  Pride, Men, Self

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn.

  Eric Hoffer

  Wrath, Hands, Fields

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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