Action Quotes - Page 40

• A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Men, Imagine, Imagine That

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• Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Men, Design, May

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• To praise great actions is in some sense to share them.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Praise, Share

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• Men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition, by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude, wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden, and to desire what is denied us.

  Francois Rabelais

  Men, Long, Honor

  "Gargantua (The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel, Book II)". Book by Francois Rabelais, 1534.

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• Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.

  Francois Rabelais

  Men, Thinking, Noble

  Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel: Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and his Son Pantagruel”, Library of Alexandria

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• Perception is naturally surpassed toward action; better yet, it can be revealed only in and through projects of action. The world is revealed as an "always future hollow", for we are always future to ourselves.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Perception, World, Projects

  Jean-Paul Sartre, Hazel Estella Barnes (1992). “Being and Nothingness”, p.425, Simon and Schuster

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• There is a difference between happiness, the supreme good, and the final end or goal toward which our actions ought to tend. For happiness is not the supreme good, but presupposes it, being the contentment or satisfaction of the mind which results from possessing it.

  Rene Descartes

  Differences, Goal, Mind

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• For those that love the world serve it in action, Grow rich, popular, and full of influence; And should they paint or write still is it action, The struggle of the fly in marmalade.

  William Butler Yeats

  Struggle, Writing, World

  William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.70, Simon and Schuster

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• Citizens who take it upon themselves to do unusual actions which attract the attention of the police should be careful to bring these actions into one of the recognized categories of crimes and offences, for it is intolerable that the police should be put to the pains of inventing reasons for finding them undesirable.

  A. P. Herbert

  Pain, Police, Citizens

  "Uncommon Law". Book by A. P. Herbert. Chapter "Is It a Free Country?", 1935.

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• Our deeds attach themselves to us like the flame to phosphorus. They constitute our brilliance, to be sure, but only in so far as they consume us.

  Andre Gide

  Flames, Deeds, Phosphorus

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• Actions whose motives he cannot understand that is, actions not prompted by the hope of profit.

  Andre Gide

  Profit, Motive

  "The Immoralist". Book by André Gide. Translated by R. Howard, 1902.

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• It has been said, and only half in jest, that a tough, professionally led union is a great force for improving management performance. It forces the manager to think about what he is doing and to be able to explain his actions and behavior.

  Peter Drucker

  Thinking, Half, Unions

  "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities". Book by Peter F. Drucker, 1973.

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• No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil.

  Peter Drucker

  Government, Evil, Needs

  Peter F. Drucker (2011). “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New”, p.178, Transaction Publishers

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• Through systematic terror, through indoctrination, through systematic manipulation of stimulus, reward, and punishment, we can today break man and convert him into brute animal... The first step toward survival is therefore to make government legitimate again by attempting to deprive it of these powers... by international action to ban such powers.

  Peter Drucker

  Animal, Men, Survival

  "Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World". Book by Peter F. Drucker, 1959.

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• Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen; Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions: For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will, But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Selfish, Passion, Men

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1849). “Tupper's Poetical Works: Proverbial Philosophy, A Thousand Lines, Hactenus”, p.20

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• The negroes are lovers of ludicrous actions, and hence all their ceremonies seem farcical.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Lovers, Ceremony, Seems

  "Curiosities of Literature". Book by Isaac D'Israeli, 1791 - 1834.

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• I could say analogously that tolerance is the affable appreciation of qualities, views, and actions of other individuals which are foreign to one`s own habits, beliefs, and tastes. Thus being tolerant does not mean being indifferent towards the actions and feelings of others. Understanding and empathy must also be present.

  Albert Einstein

  Appreciation, Mean, Views

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives”, p.89, Princeton University Press

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• Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Animal, Simple, Views

  "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Our Natural Place", p. 243, 1983.

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• We build our personalities laboriously and through many years, and we cannot order fundamental changes just because we might value their utility; no button reading "positive attitude" protrudes from our hearts, and no finger can coerce positivity into immediate action by a single and painless pressing.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Attitude, Reading, Heart

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “Full House”, p.47, Harvard University Press

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• The one who has the little need is the one who controls the whole relationship. You can see this dynamic so clearly because usually in every relationship there is one who loves the most and the other who doesn’t love, who only takes advantage of the one who gives his or her heart. You can see the way they manipulate each other, their actions and reactions, and they are just like the provider and the drug addict.

  Miguel

  Heart, Giving, Drug

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• A natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Natural, Accomplished

  Leonardo Da Vinci (2015). “Thoughts on Art and Life: "Behind the Genius"”, p.54, eKitap Projesi

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• In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and now of the recession I observe a mounting pressure to co-operate and to promote "teamwork." For its anti-individualistic streak, such a drive is of course highly suspect; some people may not be so sensitive to it, but having seen the Hitlerjugend in action suffices for the rest of your life to be very wary of "team spirit." Very.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Teamwork, People, May

  "The strengths of the academic enterprise" by Edsger Dijkstra, www.cs.utexas.edu. February 9, 1994.

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• On the one hand, society needs a common faith and vigorous institutions with the power to coerce; and on the other, the individual as a human soul or as the bearer of a new and possibly saving heresy, must be free. It is difficult enough to reconcile these two needs, but the problem holds another hazard: the need of action under the pressure of time.

  Jacques Barzun

  Hands, Two, Soul

  "Bernard Shaw in Twilight". The Kenyon Review, 1943.

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• A license cannot be revoked because a man is red-headed or because he was divorced, except for a calling, if such there be, for which red-headedness or an unbroken marriage may have some rational bearing. If a State licensing agency lays bare its arbitrary action, or if the State law explicitly allows it to act arbitrarily, that is precisely the kind of State action which the Due Process Clause forbids.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Men, Agency, Law

  "Barsky v. Board of Regents of the University, 347 U.S. 442". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. April 26, 1954.

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• A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil; his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.

  Francis Quarles

  Heart, Evil, Despair

  Francis Quarles (1856). “Enchiridion: Containing Institutions Divine Contemplative Practical: Moral Ethical Oeconomical Political”, p.22

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