A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
The focus in the Creator Orientation is on a Vision or an Outcome. You orient your thoughts and actions toward creating what you most deeply want to see or experience in life.
—David Emerald
‘Tis God gives skill, but not without men’s hand: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius’s violins without Antonio.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness—if you had little time left to live—you would waste precious little of it! Well, I’m telling you…you do have a terminal illness: It’s called birth. You don’t have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason—or you will never be at all.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made, nothing happens…. Decision is the courageous facing of issues, knowing that if they are not faced, problems will remain forever unanswered.
—Wilferd Arlan Peterson (1900–95) American Author
Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
—Dodie Smith (1896–1990) British Novelist, Playwright, Writer
A man’s value to the community primarily depends on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Hurry is the weakness of fools.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
The friendships which last are those wherein—each friend respects the other’s dignity to the point of not really wanting anything from him.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
A man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
Make the iron hot by striking it.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.
—Lawrence G. Lovasik
For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one’s strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases or preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues…This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean that is to be commended.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
We are born to action; and whatever is capable of suggesting and guiding action has power over us from the first.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
Better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed.
—Indian Proverb
If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Try the “as if” technique.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Leave something good in every day.
—Dolly Parton (b.1946) American Musician, Actress
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
—Unknown
I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s possible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Florentine Political Philosopher
Just as a flower which seems beautiful and has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of the man who speaks them but does them not.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
The beginning is half of every action.
—Greek Proverb
Unless there be correct thought, there cannot be any action, and when there is correct thought, right action will follow.
—Henry George (1839–97) American Political Economist, Journalist
One reaps whatever one has sown. Those who do good receive good and those who do evil receive evil.
—Buddhist Teaching
Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.
—Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist
The beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression more readily taken.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
I find my joy of living in the fierce and ruthless battles of life.
—August Strindberg (1849–1912) Swedish Playwright, Novelist, Essayist
He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Without respect, the subtle alchemy that binds an organization or that serves as the impetus for a business transaction would dissolve into mutual suspicion and hostility.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Action is eloquence; the eyes of the ignorant are more learned than their ears.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I was made a revolutionary in spite of myself… [A]ll creation presupposes as its origin a sort of appetite that is brought on by the foretaste of discovery. This foretaste of the creative art accompanies the intuitive grasp of an unknown entity that will not take definite shape except by the action of a constantly vigilant technique. This appetite that is aroused in me at the mere thought of putting in order musical elements that have attracted my attention is not at all a fortuitous thing like inspiration, but as habitual and periodic, if not constant, as a natural need… The very act of putting my work on paper, of, as we say, kneading the dough, is for me inseperable from the pleasure of creation. So far as I am concerned, I cannot seperate the spiritual effort from the psychological and physical effort; they confront me on the same level and do not present a hierarchy…What concerns us here is not imagination itself, but rather creative imagination: the facultyy that helps us to pass from the level of conception to the level of realization. In the course of my labors I suddenly stumble upon something unexpected. this unexpected element strikes me. I make note of it. At the proper time I put it to profitable use… The faculty of creating is never given to us all by itself. It always goes hand in hand with the gift of observation. And the true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note… The least accident holds his interest and guides his operations. If his finger slips, he will notice it; on occasion, he may draw profit from something unforeseen that a momentary lapse reveals to him. One does not contrive an accident: one observes it to draw inspiration therefrom.
—Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Russian-born American Composer, Musician
The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The early bird gets the worm.
—Common Proverb
In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Try and trust will move mountains.
—Common Proverb
Nothing will come of nothing.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
I did not think; I investigated.
—Wilhelm Roentgen (1845–1923) German Physicist
Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian