Selected action quotes

1. The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

2. Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

3. I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.

4. Love has a hem to her garment that reaches to the very dust. It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must.

5. When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why.

6. Action is the parent of results; dormancy, the brooding mother of discontent.

7. It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them.

8. Just as rust, which arose from the iron itself, wears out the iron, likewise, performing an action without examination would destroy us by projecting us into a negative state of existence.

9. A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

10. Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

11. If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

12. Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

13. One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

14. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

15. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

16. You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

17. Dreams grow holy put in action; work grows fair through starry dreaming, But where each flows on unmingling, both are fruitless and in vain.

18. Our success or failure is not in the hands of our leaders. It is in our hands.

19. We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

20. There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.

21. Does the end justify the means? That is possible. But what will justify the end? To that question, which historical thought leaves pending, rebellion replies: the means.

22. If you keep on excusing, you eventually give your blessing to the slave camp, to cowardly force, to organized executioners, to the cynicism of great political monsters; you finally hand over your brothers.

23. If, after all, men cannot always make history have a meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one.

24. Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

25. There always comes a time when one must choose between contemplation and action. This is called becoming a man.

26. The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence.

27. Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.

28. I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

29. This new form of activity medicine I could not represent to myself as talking about the religion of love, but only as an actual putting it into practice.

30. It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

31. Let us love the passing hour, let us hurry up and enjoy our time.

32. Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

33. However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it.

34. My work comes first, reasons for it follow.

35. We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.

36. The best way to be thankful is to use the goods the gods provide you.

37. It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.

38. Patience is a flatterer, sir, and an ass, sir.

39. If there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake, clearly this must be the good. Will not knowledge of it, then, have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what we should? If so, we must try, in outline at least, to determine what it is.

40. It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would have even a prospect of becoming good. But most people do not do these, but take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers and will become good in this way, behaving somewhat like patients who listen attentively to their doctors, but do none of the things they are ordered to do.

41. Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can.

42. While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.

43. No one knows what he can do till he tries.

44. If I have any talent at all, it is not for doing but for being.

45. The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.

46. He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus. I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it. When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor.

47. I hung up. It was a step in the right direction, but it didn't go far enough. I ought to have locked the door and hid under the desk.

48. Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.

49. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

50. Sometimes the things we have to do are objectionable in the eyes of others.

51. Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win.

52. Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.

53. If tempted by something that feels 'altruistic,' examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!

54. Deeds let escape are never to be done.

55. 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!

56. Sometimes I have my doubts of words altogether, and I ask myself what is the place of them. They are worse than nothing unless they do something; unless they amount to deeds, as in ultimatums or battle-cries. They must be flat and final like the show-down in poker, from which there is no appeal. My definition of poetry (if I were forced to give one) would be this: words that become deeds.

57. A good deed is the best prayer.

58. The hands that help are far better than the lips that pray.

59. To be overwise is to ossify; and the scruple-monger ends by standing stockstill.

60. You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

61. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

62. Action is the highest perfection and drawing forth of the utmost power, vigor, and activity of man's nature.

63. It is idleness that creates impossibilities; and where people don't care to do anything, they shelter themselves under a permission that it cannot be done.

64. The instinct of creativity must be followed by the act, the physical act of putting it down for a sense of permanence. Once you get that prod, that emotional jar, that, 'I have witnessed something.' Or, 'I have felt something.' Or, 'I have seen something.' Or, through observation, 'I have been moved by an event.' I think the answer is, 'Get it down. Get it down quickly. Write it down.'

65. You are a vain fellow. You want to be a hero. That is why you do such silly things. A hero! ... I don't quite know what that is: but, you see, I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others do not do it.

66. When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.

67. There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.

68. Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

69. Dare to believe me. Dare!

70. There is only one good. And that is to act according to your conscience.

71. It is impossible to do anything for anyone.

72. Ninety-five percent of people who walk the earth are simply inert. One percent are saints, and one percent are assholes. The other three percent are people who do what they say they can do.

73. The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

74. Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

75. I am much less interested in what is called God's word than in God's deeds. All bibles are man-made.

76. Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

77. If we don't act now, we can't keep those people down there forever. We can't wait forever. If we don't act now, then we will go back to what has happened before and then of course the whole thing begins again and he carries on developing these weapons and these are dangerous weapons, particularly if they fall into the hands of terrorists who we know want to use these weapons if they can get them.

78. Whatever the dangers of the action we take, the dangers of inaction are far, far greater.

79. When a person tries to act in accordance with his conscience, when he tries to speak the truth, when he tries to behave like a citizen, even in conditions where citizenship is degraded, it won't necessarily lead anywhere, but it might. There's one thing, however, that will never lead anywhere, and that is speculating that such behavior will lead somewhere.

80. It's not true that you should first think up an idea for a better world and only then 'put it into practice,' but, rather, through the fact of your existence in the world, you create the idea or manifest it - create it, as it were, from the 'material of the world,' articulate it in the 'language of the world.'

81. A human action becomes genuinely important when it springs from the soil of a clear-sighted awareness of the temporality and the ephemerality of everything human. It is only this awareness that can breathe any greatness into an action.

82. Sober perseverance is more effective than enthusiastic emotions, which are all too capable of being transferred, with little difficulty, to something different each day.

83. Why do I say this? It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last forty years as something alien, which some distant relative bequeathed to us. On the contrary, we have to accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly. Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it would be wrong to expect a general remedy from them alone. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.

84. Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

85. I myself won't do anything, but I won't stop anyone else from acting.

86. It is the principle of necessity towards which, as to their ultimate centre, all the ideas advanced in this essay immediately converge. In abstract theory the limits of this necessity are determined solely by considerations of man's proper nature as a human being; but in the application we have to regard, in addition, the individuality of man as he actually exists. This principle of necessity should, I think, prescribe the grand fundamental rule to which every effort to act on human beings and their manifold relations should be invariably conformed. For it is the only thing which conducts to certain and unquestionable results. The consideration of the useful, which might be opposed to it, does not admit of any true and unswerving decision.

87. The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.

88. The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

89. Face facts.

90. 'Wake up!'

91. 'RING THE DAMN BELL!'

92. ... life is meaningless unless you bring meaning to it; ... it is up to us to create our own existence. Unless you do something, unless you make something it's as though you aren't there.

93. We can see that in putting the question 'what is man?' what we mean is: what can man become? That is, can man dominate his own destiny, can he 'make himself,' can he create his own life? We maintain therefore that man is a process and, more exactly, the process of his actions. If you think about it, the question itself 'what is man?' is not an abstract or 'objective' question. It is born of our reflection about ourselves and about others, and we want to know, in relation to what we have thought and seen, what we are and what we can become; whether we really are, and if so to what extent, 'makers of our own selves,' of our life and of our destiny. And we want to know this 'today,' in the given conditions of today, the conditions of our daily life, not of any life or any man

94. ''a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will'8.23

95. Ladies and gentlemen, I came here to avoid as much as possible treading on your corns. I had intended to deal only with the basic issue of economics that dictates our lives from the cradle to the grave, regardless of our religion or moral beliefs. I see now that it was a mistake. If one enters a battle, he cannot be squeamish about a few corns. Here, then, are my answers: I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made. As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry - the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth. As for the gentleman who asked if free love would not build more houses of prostitution, my answer is: They will all be empty if the men of the future look like him.

96. When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!

97. 'You can say the Jesus Prayer from now till doomsday, but if you don't realize that the only thing that counts in the religious life is detachment, I don't see how you'll ever even move an inch. Detachment, buddy, and only detachment. Desirelessness. 'Cessation from all hankerings.' It's this business of desiring, if you want to know the goddam truth, that makes an actor in the first place. Why're you making me tell you things you already know? Somewhere along the line - in one damn incarnation or another, if you like - you not only had a hankering to be an actor or an actress but to be a good one. You're stuck with it now. You can't just walk out on the results of your own hankerings. Cause and effect, buddy, cause and effect. The only thing you can do now, the only religious thing you can do, is act. Act for God, if you want to - be God's actress, if you want to. What could be prettier? You can at least try to, if you want to - there's nothing wrong in trying.' There was a slight pause. 'You'd better get busy, though, buddy. The goddam sands run out on you every time you turn around. I know what I'm talking about. You're lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.'

98. ...why did we wait for any thing?--why not seize the pleasure at once?--How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

99. In order to examine ourselves thoroughly, let the case be proposed in the strongest manner. What, if I were to see a Papist, an Arian, a Socinian casting out devils? If I did, I could not forbid even him, without convicting myself of bigotry. Yea, if it could be supposed that I should see a Jew, a Deist, or a Turk, doing the same, were I to forbid him either directly or indirectly, I should be no better than a bigot still. O stand clear of this! But be not content with not forbidding any that casts out devils. It is well to go thus far; but do not stop here. If you will avoid all bigotry, go on. In every instance of this kind, whatever the instrument be, acknowledge the finger of God. And not only acknowledge, but rejoice in his work, and praise his name with thanksgiving. Encourage whomsoever God is pleased to employ, to give himself wholly up thereto. Speak well of him wheresoever you are; defend his character and his mission. Enlarge, as far as you can, his sphere of action; show him all kindness in word and deed; and cease not to cry to God in his behalf, that he may save both himself and them that hear him. I need add but one caution: Think not the bigotry of another is any excuse for your own. It is not impossible, that one who casts out devils himself, may yet forbid you so to do. You may observe, this is the very case mentioned in the text. The Apostles forbade another to do what they did themselves. But beware of retorting. It is not your part to return evil for evil. Another's not observing the direction of our Lord, is no reason why you should neglect it. Nay, but let him have all the bigotry to himself. If he forbid you, do not you forbid him. Rather labour, and watch, and pray the more, to confirm your love toward him. If he speak all manner of evil of you, speak all manner of good (that is true) of him.

100. Either get busy living or get busy dying