action - quotes

André (Paul Guillaume) Gide, 1869-1951

was a French critic, essayist, and novelist

The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.

Helen (Adams) Keller, 1880-1968

was an US blind and deaf educator

I am only one, still I am one. I can not do everything, still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

was an US essayist and poet

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Ernest (Miller) Hemingway, 1899-1961

was an US author and journalist

Never mistake motion for action.

Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983

was an American social writer and philosopher

The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action — the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

John Ruskin, 1819-1900

was an English critic, essayist, and reformer

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.

Herbert (Clark) Hoover, 1874-1964

was an US mining engineer and politician

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde, 1854-1900

was an Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet

Action: the last resource of those who know not how to dream.