62 Quotes About Taking Action

 

Let’s begin today’s blog with a quiz.

Quiz Question 1: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being "do something now" and 10 being "think about it a while," how would you rate yourself?

Quiz Question 2: Are people more likely to tell you to speed up? Or are people more likely to tell you to slow down?

Quiz Question 3: Do you act before thinking? Or do you think before acting?

You’ve probably guessed that there are no right or wrong answers to this quiz. Each behavior has its benefits and its drawbacks. Furthermore, depending on the situation, your tendency to think, act, or not act will vary.

Yet, whether your preferred method is immediate action, delayed action, thoughtful action, or no action, one fact remains: Your actions say more than your words.

People can see your actions, feel your actions, and connect with your actions. And yes, that intense look on your face while you’re thinking is indeed an action, albeit a small one.

Thank you for taking the quiz. You’ve done well. May you find balance between thinking and acting.

To help you on your quest, enjoy these quotes about actions, both big and small.

 

Quotes About Taking Action 

Not all speed is movement. ~ Toni Cade Bambara

Thy actions, and thy actions alone, determine thy worth. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

My old man says when it’s time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room. ~ Dwayne Johnson

It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it. ~ Maurice Switzer

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

The world is a globe. The farther you sail, the closer to home you are. ~ Terry Pratchett

Striving for greatness and wanting to be the best at what you do are essential components to mastering your craft. ~ Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi)

Wishing won’t keep you safe, preparedness will. ~ Anonymous

A foolish man beginneth many things, and endeth nothing. ~ Aristotle

Friends are the real superheroes. They battle our worst enemies—loneliness, grief, anxiety, depression, fear, and doubt—every time they come around. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

...it is the property of a truly good man to do great and good things, though he risk everything by it. ~ Caius Marius

Plan ahead: It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. ~ Richard Cushing

Never allow waiting to become a habit. Live your dreams and take risks. Life is happening now. ~ Paulo Coelho

You may delay, but time will not. ~ Benjamin Franklin

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. ~ William Arthur Ward

The decision is always made by the person with the power to make the decision. ~ Peter Drucker

Be courageous, but not rash. ~ William Penn

Courage consists not in blindly over-looking danger, but in seeing and conquering it. ~ Johann Paul Friedrich Richter

A man should examine himself not only as to what he has done, but also as to what he has not done. ~ Confucius

We ought to refrain from acting during a moment of passion, for it is always imprudent to put to sea in a storm. ~ J. P. de La Fite

Help yourself, and Heaven will help you. ~ Jean de la Fontaine

I have ever held it as a maxim, never to do that through another, which it was possible for me to execute myself. ~ Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat)

Boldness and power are such inseparable companions that they appear to be born together; and when once divided, they both decay and die at the same time. ~ Henry Venn

Action, not speech, proves the man. ~ Thomas Northmore

Be slow in considering, but resolute in acting. ~ Bias (The Prince of Wise Men)

When you live from the inside out, it doesn’t matter how chaotic the world around you is. You’re at peace with yourself and walk with your own pace. ~ Assegid Habtewold

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Parents who are ignorant of their duty will be taught by the misconduct of their children what they ought to have done. ~ Marcus Lafayette Byrn

Don’t ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak. ~ William Paul Young

You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens.  ~ Mandy Hale

“Never again” means acting before it’s too late. “Never again” means stopping the aggressor before it can cause more death and destruction. “Never again” means not letting fear paralyze us. ~ Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Foreign Minister

Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

I don’t believe there’s any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can’t completely ignore. ~ George Carlin

One man with a machine which perhaps he himself has helped to build, will do in a day as much as five men now do with their teams of horses...In a few years the horse will become obsolete except for saddle horses, though why anyone wants to ride horse back is more than I can understand. ~ Henry Ford

Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes. ~ P.J. O’Rourke

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. ~ Jack Welch

Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. ~ Ava DuVernay

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is anyone of you. ~ Audre Lorde

I raise up my voice—not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard. ~ Malala Yousafzai

We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count. ~ Neal A. Maxwell

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. ~ Kahlil Gibran

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. ~ G.K. Chesterton

Never confuse your right to say what you believe with a right to never be disagreed with and ridiculed for saying what you believe. ~ Ricky Gervais

In the performance of a good action, a man not only benefits himself, but he confers a blessing upon others. ~ Sir Philip Sidney

We are not preparing for the world we live in, we are preparing for the world we find ourselves in. ~ Michael Mabee

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. ~ John F. Kennedy

To lose one’s self in reverie, one must be either very happy, or very unhappy. Reverie is the child of extremes. ~ Antoine de Rivarol

Every gracious action is a seed of joy, and every sinful action the seed of anguish and sorrow to the soul that soweth it. ~ John Flavel

He that knows himself knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men’s heads. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Every time you stay out late, every time you sleep in, every time you miss a workout, every time you don’t give 100% – you make it that much easier for me to beat you. ~ Anonymous

Sometimes the hardest thing in life is knowing which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn. I’m the one you burn. ~ Clive Owen (as Louis Salinger, The International)

Practice is of greatest importance in every art. ~ Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella

Sometimes you have to forgive and forget. Forgive them for hurting you and forget they exist. ~ Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi)

Ambition is like a tread-wheel; it knows no limits; you no sooner get to the end of it than you begin again. ~ Henry Wheeler Shaw

Every man must educate himself; his books and teachers are but helps; the work is his. ~ Daniel Webster

Social change is brought about by those who dare and act, who can think unconventionally and who can court unpopularity. ~ Indira Gandhi

There is something in our culture that says your dream or the thing you’re pursuing has to happen immediately and all at once, and that is destructive to the creative spirit. ~ Ava DuVernay

Education is the ability to meet life’s situations. ~ John G. Hibben

Success isn’t owned – it’s leased. And rent is due every day. ~ J. J. Watt

We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. ~ Marie Curie

 

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