Action Quotes

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. ~John Locke


Well done is better than well said. ~Benjamin Franklin


Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out. ~Italian Proverb


After all is said and done, a lot more will have been said than done. ~Author Unknown


The shortest answer is doing. ~Lord Herbert


Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement. ~Alfred Adler


We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. ~Frank Tibolt


A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain. ~Arabian Proverb


An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. ~Arnold Glasow


Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action. ~Brendan Francis


Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. ~Peter Marshall


Never mistake motion for action. ~Ernest Hemingway


Action is eloquence. ~William Shakespeare


There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today. ~Mignon McLaughlin


A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion. ~Washington Irving, adapted from a verse in the Bible


Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream. ~Oscar Wilde


Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997


Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold - but so does a hard-boiled egg. ~Author Unknown


If ifs were gifts, every day would be Christmas. ~Charles Barkley


Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. ~Edmund Burke


Talk doesn't cook rice. ~Chinese Proverb


Be content to act, and leave the talking to others. ~Baltasar Gracian


All know the way; few actually walk it. ~Bodhidharma


Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live. ~Nicolas de Chamfort


The first step binds one to the second. ~French Proverb


I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on man unless they act. ~G.K. Chesterton


If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt. ~Henry J. Kaiser


There is no moment like the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards: they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence. ~Maria Edgeworth


Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one. ~Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs, 1960


Action is the antidote to despair. ~Joan Baez


Ironically, making a statement with words is the least effective method. ~Grey Livingston


He liked to go from A to B without inventing letters between. ~John McPhee


Action worships the deed. ~Nathaniel LeTonnerre, translated


The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration. ~Ernest Newman


We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts. ~Harold Nicolson


A nod,
a bow,
and a tip of the lid
to the person
who coulda
and shoulda
and did.
~Robert Brault, "A Poem Missing the Word Woulda," www.robertbrault.com


The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. ~Vance Havner


He who has made a thousand things and he who has made none, both feel the same desire: to make something. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


Don't find fault. Find a remedy. ~Henry Ford


What ought to have been done, and what shall be done, often stifle doing between them. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827


Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now. ~Jonatan Mårtensson


Nature takes away any faculty that is not used. ~William R. Inge


He that waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner. ~Benjamin Franklin


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


In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be a mere rushing on. ~D.H. Lawrence


Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. ~James Baldwin


Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve. ~Tehyi Hsieh


Men expect too much, do too little. ~Allen Tate


When deeds speak, words are nothing. ~African Proverb


As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. ~Andrew Carnegie


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. ~Author Unknown


I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things. ~William J. Lock


People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do. ~Lewis Cass


We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. ~Calvin Coolidge