This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Justice is truth in action." - Joseph Joubert
"Justice is the truth in action." - Joseph Joubert
"Anger is fuel. We feel it and we want to do something... Anger is meant to be listened to... Anger is not the action itself. It is action's invitation." - Julia Cameron
"Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression." - Karen Horney, born Danielsen
"The margin between that which men naturally do, and that which they can do, is so great that a system which urges men on to action and develops individual enterprise and initiative is preferable, in spite of the wastes that necessarily attend their process." - Louis D. Brandeis, fully Louis Dembitz Brandeis
"The old life was attuned to nature’s rhythm – bound in mystical ties to the sun, moon and stars; to the waving grasses, flowing steams and whispering winds. It is not a question… of the white man “bringing the Indian up to his plan of thought and action.” It is rather a case where the white man had better grasp some of the Indian’s spiritual strength." - Luther Standing Bear, aka Ota Kte or Mochunozhin
"The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation combined with action." - M. Scott Peck, fully Morgan Scott Peck
"Habit is memory in action." - Madame La Comtesse, Diane de Vobrillac (Marie de Beausacq)
"All occurrences of violence, negativity, conflict crisis, or problems in any society are just the expression of growth of stress in collective consciousness. When the level of stress becomes sufficiently great, it bursts out into large-scale violence, war, and civil uprising necessitating military action." - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, born Mahesh Prasad Varma
"Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exist at the appropriate time." - Malcolm Muggeridge
"The consciousness of having done a splendid action is itself a sufficient reward." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"Every generous action loves the public view; yet no theatre for virtue is equal to a consciousness of it." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"It's time for greatness -- not for greed. It's a time for idealism -- not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action." - Marian Wright Edelman
"The medium, or process, of our time - electric technology - is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted. Everything is changing - you, your family, your neighborhood, your education, your job, your government, your relation to “the others.” And they’re changing dramatically." -
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost." - Martha Graham
"Man’s action is enclosed in God’s action, but it is still real action." - Martin Buber
"Action is the greatest tonic for depression... Every action you perform is important." - Mary T. Browne
"Action and becoming are one." - Meister Eckhart, formally Meister von Hochheim
"Our lives are meaningful to the degree that, as individuals or as participants in common action, we make this world the homeland of the human rather than its place of exile." - Michael Harrington, fully Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington
"Ethics is putting principles into action. Consistently between what we say we value and what our actions say we value is a matter of integrity." - Michael S. Josephson
"Action and reflection should ideally complement and support each other. Action by itself is blind, reflection impotent." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
"From the point of view of an individual, it does not matter what the ultimate goal is - provided it is compelling enough to order a lifetime's worth of psychic energy... As long as it provides clear objectives, clear rules for action, and a way to concentrate and become involved, any goal can serve to give meaning to a person's life." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
"History is taught with little regard to the ecology, the economics, the sociology or psychology - let alone the biology - that are necessary to understand human action. The same is true of all other academic subjects. Yet if we continue to teach physics separately from ethics, or molecular biology without concern for empathy, the chances of a monstrous evolutionary miscarriage are going to increase. To avoid these possibilities, it is imperative to begin thinking about a truly integrative, global education that takes seriously the actual interconnectedness of causes and effects." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
"The merging of action and awareness is made possible by centering attention on a limited stimulus field. To insure that people will concentrate on their actions, potentially intruding stimuli must be kept out of attention. Some writers [such as Abraham Maslow] have called this process a "narrowing of consciousness" or "a giving up of the past and the future."" - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
"More consequences for thought and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other question." - Mortimer J. Adler, fully Mortimer Jerome Adler
"Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you're ready or not, to put it into action."" - Napoleon Hill
"A political movement must keep in touch with reality and the prevailing conditions. Long speeches, the shaking of fists, the banging of tables, and strongly worded resolutions out of touch with the objective conditions do not bring about mass action and can do a great deal of harm to the organization and the struggle we serve." - Nelson Mandela, fully Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
"As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss." - Noam Chomsky, fully Avram Noam Chomsky
"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all." - Norman Vincent Peale
"Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of the time, at period of being judged not to have lived." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"The entire world shall be populous with that action which saves one soul from despair." - Omar Khayyám
"Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream." - Oscar Wilde, pen name for Fingal O'Flahertie Wills
"I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character… I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace." - Oscar Wilde, pen name for Fingal O'Flahertie Wills
"Wars are brought about not by fateful divine action but by widespread material selfishness. Banish selfishness - individual, industrial, political, national - and you will have no more wars." - Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
"Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all." - Pericles NULL
"Acceptance is not a state of passivity or inaction. I am not saying you can't change the world, right wrongs, or replace evil with good. Acceptance is, in fact, the first step to successful action. If you don't fully accept a situation precisely the way it is, you will have difficulty changing it. Moreover, if you don't fully accept the situation, you will never really know if the situation should be changed." - Peter McWilliams, fully Peter Alexander McWilliams
"The value of action is that we make mistakes; mistakes show us what we need to learn." - Peter McWilliams, fully Peter Alexander McWilliams
"I went down into my inmost self, to the deepest abyss where I feel dimly that my power of action emanates. But as I moved further and further away from the conventional certainties by which social life is superficially illuminated, I became aware that I was losing contact with myself. At each step of the descent a new person was disclosed within me of whose name I was no longer sure, and who no longer obeyed me. And when I had to stop my exploration because the path faded from beneath my steps, I found a bottomless abyss at my feet, and out of it comes - arising I know not from where - the current which I dare call my life." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
"I will not steep my speech in lies; the test of any man lies in action." - Pindar NULL
"The test of any man lies in action." - Pindar NULL
"Pain, it is true, transmuted, so to say, by its own fiery heat into anger, loses every appearance of depression and feebleness; the angry man makes a show of energy, as the man in a high fever does of natural heat, while, in fact, all this action of soul is but mere diseased palpitation, distention, and inflammation." - Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL
"The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need at all of glory, except so far as it disposes and eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him." - Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL
"It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action in its character, and make it either good or bad." - Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL