Human Actions Quotes

• All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

  Aristotle

  Nature, Philosophical, Passion

  "Rhetoric". Book by Aristotle. Book I, 1369a.5,

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• The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

  Nhat Hanh

  Forgiveness, Peace, Practice

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2005). “Wisdom from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life”, p.36, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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  A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Beauty, Spiritual

  Letter of 1950, as quoted in "The New York Times", March 29, 1972.

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  Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

  Margaret Mead

  Inspirational, Life, Friendship

  Margaret Mead, Robert B. Textor (2005). “The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future”, p.12, Berghahn Books

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• actions speak louder than words

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Inspirational, Suicide, Wisdom

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.659, Simon and Schuster

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• A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.

  Albert Einstein

  Nature, Compassion, Animal

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.339, Princeton University Press

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• I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Wisdom, Philosophical, Effort

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• ... no human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice.

  John Ruskin

  Men, Justice, Political

  John Ruskin (1872). “"Unto this Last": Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy”, p.21

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• It's obvious that there are vast variety of consequentialist views, depending on what we think goodness consists in, what our notion of consequence is, and what level (or levels) of human action we think the principle should be applied.

  Dale Jamieson

  Thinking, Views, Principles

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• A burning desire is the greatest motivator of every human action.

  Paul J. Meyer

  Desire, Burning, Action

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• Positive human action is not only possible, but pervasive; human beings can improve and choose light and so on. And this is all happening.

  George Saunders

  Light, Action, Humans

  Source: www.nationalbook.org

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• Kindness and generosity ... form the true morality of human actions.

  Madame de Stael

  Kindness, Generosity, Morality

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• All human action is expressive; a gesture is an intentionally expressive action. All art is expressive - of its author and of the situation in which he works - but some art is intended to move us through visual gestures that transmit, and perhaps give release to, emotions and emotionally charged messages. Such art is expressionist.

  Norbert Lynton

  Art, Moving, Giving

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• In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain -- that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Science, Design, Desire

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2012). “The Philosophy of History”, p.27, Courier Corporation

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• No honest work of man or woman "fails"; it feeds the sum of all human action.

  Michelene Wandor

  Inspirational, Men, Action

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• There is no conceivable human action which custom has not at one time justified and at another condemned.

  Joseph Wood Krutch

  Action, Justified, Humans

  Joseph Wood Krutch (1970). “A Krutch Omnibus: Forty Years of Social and Literary Criticism”

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• History being the record of human action is a richly variegated material, and it is not easy to give a true impression of the stuff by snipping off an inch or two for a pattern.

  C. V. Wedgwood

  Two, History, Giving

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• The methods of peace propaganda which aim at establishing peace doctrine by argument and by creating a feeling favorable to peace in general seem to fall short of reaching the springs of human action and of dealing with the causes of the conduct which they seek to modify.

  Elihu Root

  Spring, Fall, Creating

  Elihu Root (1916). “Addresses on International Subjects”

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• The three most effective incentives to human action may be ... classified as creed, greed and dread. ... In examining the scientist it is perhaps worth while to examine how far he is moved by these three incentives. I think that, rather peculiarly and rather exceptionally, he is very little moved by dread. ... He is in fact essentially a person who has been taught he must be fearless in his dealing with facts.

  Robert Watson-Watt

  Science, Thinking, Effectiveness

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• Forgiveness allows us to live in the sunlight of the present, not the darkness of the past. Forgiveness alone, of all our human actions, opens up the world to the miracle of infinite possibility.

  Kent Nerburn

  Past, Miracle, Darkness

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• Every human actions becomes dangerous when it is deprived of human feeling. When they are performed with feeling and respect for human values, all activities become constructive.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Feelings, Action

  Dalai Lama, Sofia Stril-Rever (2010). “My Spiritual Journey”, p.10, Harper Collins

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• No event for the Koyukon - or for most other indigenous peoples - is ever entirely meaningless or accidental, but neither is any event entirely predetermined or fated. Rather like the trickster, Raven, who first gave it its current form, the sensuous world is a spontaneous, playful and dangerous mystery in which we participate, an articulate and improvisational field of powers ever responsive to human actions and spoken words.

  David Abram

  Ravens, Events, World

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• Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature can not be changed

  Abraham Lincoln

  Nature, Words Of Wisdom, Action

  Cooper Union Address, delivered 27 February 1860, New York, NY

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• To treat of human actions is to deal wholly with second causes.

  Herman Melville

  Deeds, Causes, Action

  Herman Melville, Robert C. Ryan, Hershel Parker (2009). “Published Poems: The Writings of Herman Melville”, p.755, Northwestern University Press

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• Human judgment of human actions is true and void , that is to say, first true and then void.... The judgment of the word is true, the judgment in itself is void.... Only he who is a party can really judge, but as a party he cannot judge. Hence it follows that there is no possibility of judgment in the world, only a glimmer of it.

  Franz Kafka

  Party, Judging, World

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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