“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.”
“You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.”
“Begin -- to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.”
“The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.”
“Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture.”
“Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars.”
“If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you.”
“Action is the highest perfection and drawing forth of the utmost power, vigor, and activity of man's nature.”
“So many fail because they don't get started -- they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.”
“Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the path can substitute for putting one foot in front of the other.”
“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
“The successful men of action are not sufficiently self-observant to know exactly on what their success depends.”
“We are born to action; and whatever is capable of suggesting and guiding action has power over us from the first.”
“If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen.”
“Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.”
“Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.”
“It isn't sufficient just to want -- you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.”
“In activity we must find our joy as well as glory; and labor, like everything else that is good, is its own reward.”
“It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done.”
“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.”
“We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.”
“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”
“Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.”
“Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.”
“Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.”
“Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.”
“It was prettily devised of Aesop, ''The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise! ''”
“To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.”
“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.”
“When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, ''Action, Action, Action.''”