If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.
—Stanley Kubrick (1928–99) American Film Director, Producer
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Act—act in the living present.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
If you don’t place your foot on the rope, you’ll never cross the chasm.
—Unknown
Indifference and inaction must always pay a penalty.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
What you theoretically know, vividly realize.
—Francis Thompson (1859–1907) English Poet, Ascetic
The beginning is half of every action.
—Greek Proverb
Men expect too much, do too little.
—Allen Tate (1899–1979) American Poet, Essayist
In putting off what one has to do, one runs the risk of never being able to do it.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
Every beginning is hard.
—Unknown
Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
Well done is better than well said.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Doing nothing is the most tiresome job in the world because you cannot quit and rest.
—Unknown
If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Action is eloquence.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
To know just what has do be done, then to do it, comprises the whole philosophy of practical life.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
There’s as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something.
—F. Trammell Crow (1914–2009) American Real Estate Developer
The keen spirit seizes the prompt occasion; makes the thought start into instant action, and at once plans and performs, resolves, and executes!
—Hannah More
The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
—Chinese Proverb
The important thing is somehow to begin.
—Henry Moore (1898–1986) English Sculptor
Words gain credibility by deed.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
If you want a thing done, go. If not, send. The shortest answer is doing.
—English Proverb
The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Delay always breeds danger, and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
“Mean to” don’t pick no cotton.
—Anonymous
Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.
—John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish Roman Catholic Mystic
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