You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
The time to begin most things is ten years ago.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Postponement: the sincerest form of rejection.
—Robert Half
Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture.
—Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) Italian Philosopher, Literary Critic
Words gain credibility by deed.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Beginnings are apt to be shadowy and so it is the beginnings of the great mother life, the sea.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
The first step is always the hardest.
—Common Proverb
One of these days is none of these days.
—Common Proverb
There is, by God’s grace, an immeasurable distance between late and too late.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Do noble things, do not dream them all day long.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that sooner or later all men will do and know all things.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
Eighty percent of success is showing up.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
The most important thing about getting somewhere is starting right where we are.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American Author, Advertising Executive, Politician
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
Don’t say you don’t have enough time.
You have exactly the same number of hours per day
that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur,
Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci,
Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b.1940) American Self-Help Author
What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
A mantra to cure procrastinators: It needn’t be perfect; it needn’t be fun; it just has to get done.
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
An acre of performance is worth the whole world of promise.
—Jeremiah Brown Howell
By the streets of “by and by,” one arrives at the house of “never.”
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–93) British Historian, Scholar, Novelist, Satirist
To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something, while to secure it in this world we must needs do something.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
Well done is better than well said.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
Ideas are one thing, and what happens is another.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Festination may prove Precipitation;
Deliberating delay may be wise cunctation.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
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
One of the reasons why so few of us ever act, instead of react, is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
We pass our life in deliberation, and we die upon it.
—Pasquier Quesnel (1634–1719) French Jansenist Theologian
Delay not till tomorrow to be wise; tomorrow’s sun to thee may never rise.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.
—John Tillotson
My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry ’til a more convenient season.
—Mary Todd Lincoln (1818–82) American First lady
One’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into action … which bring results.
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English Nurse
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.
—Ivan Turgenev (1818–83) Russian Novelist, Playwright
Good things come to those who wait, but they are left-overs from those who hustle.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Indulge in procrastination, and in time you will come to this, that because a thing ought to be done, therefore you can’t do it.
—Charles Buxton (1823–71) British Politician, Writer
Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The end of man is action.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The biggest sin is sitting on your ass.
—Florynce Kennedy (1916–2000) American Lawyer, Civil Rights Leader, Feminist, Activist
Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform, and mortal men lay hold on heaven.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. Work while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow. One today is worth two tomorrows; never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Have a time and place for everything, and do everything in its time and place, and you will not only accomplish more, but have far more leisure than those who are always hurrying, as if vainly attempting to overtake time that had been lost.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
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, Writer, Film Producer, Photographer
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Oh seek, my love, your newer way;
I’ll not be left in sorrow.
So long as I have yesterday
Go take your damned tomorrow!
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
Action, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase “It is the busiest man who has time to spare.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–93) British Historian, Scholar, Novelist, Satirist
What you theoretically know, vividly realize.
—Francis Thompson (1859–1907) English Poet, Ascetic
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.
—Victor Kiam (1926–2001) American Entrepreneur
The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.
—W. Edwards Deming (1900–93) American Engineer, Statistician
Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. — Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.
—Aaron Burr
He that is overcautious will accomplish but very little.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.
—George C. Lorimer (1838–1904) American Baptist Clergyman
The individual activity of one man with backbone will do more than a thousand men with a mere wishbone.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
If we really want to live, we’d better start at once to try.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than to push forward pluckily and make a fall.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
He who waits upon fortune is never sure of dinner.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The way to get ahead is to start now. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don’t know now and that you would not have known next year if you had waited.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
The man who procrastinates struggles with ruin.
—Hesiod (f.700 BCE) Greek Poet
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
It’s the job that’s never started takes longest to finish.
—J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) British Scholar, Author
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