This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Action releases truth so it can inspire and regenerate; action releases ideas so they can bless and benefit." - Wilferd Peterson, fully Wilferd Arlan Peterson
"Art is expression; it is mind in action." - Wilferd Peterson, fully Wilferd Arlan Peterson
"Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made nothing happens." - Wilferd Peterson, fully Wilferd Arlan Peterson
"If the Real is God, it is with God that we have to do from moment to moment of daily living. For each action the world concentrates itself into a point of resistance and support; and that pint is a Thou, not an It." - William Ernest Hocking
"A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being." - William Hazlitt
"We must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary to us than thought." - William Hazlitt
"Be great in act, as you have been in thought. Suit the action to the word, and the word to the action." - William Hazlitt
"Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instructive tendencies of the human frame." - William Hazlitt
"Your own self is your own Cain that murders your own Abel. For every action and motion of self has the spirit of Anti-Christ and murders the divine life within you." - William Law
"Will is character in action." - William McDougall
"Be great in act, as you have been in thought. - Suit the action to the word and the word to the action." - William Shakespeare
"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable ! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!... And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" - William Shakespeare
"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite if faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" - William Shakespeare
"Action is eloquence; the eyes of the ignorant are more learned than their ears." - William Shakespeare
"Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach men humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action." - W. Somerset Maugham, fully William Somerset Maugham
"A bulky staff implies a division of responsibility, slowness of action, and indecision; whereas a small staff implies activity and concentration of purpose." - William Tecumseh Sherman
"A person whose main goal in life is to be a good person will judge each event and situation by asking himself: “What can I do now that will make me a better person?” The exact details of the situation will not make a major difference to him. He focuses on his own attitudes and behavior, and consequently he will look at each situation as a test of his character and spiritual level. His goal is to become more elevated with each action and statement. If he is missing something which he feels he can use, he will not be irritated for he thinks, “With what I have right now, what is the most elevating behavior I can choose?”" - Zelig Pliskin
"Goals are dreams we convert to plans and take action to fulfill." - Zig Ziglar, born Hilary Hinton Ziglar
"Even on the path to God, All is God. You are freed from your own desires only when God frees you. This is not effected by your own exertion, but by the grace of God... Then you entirely recognize that you do not have the right to say “I” or “mine.” At this stage you behold your helplessness; desires fall away from you and you become free and calm. You desire what God desires; your own desires are gone, you are emancipated from your wants, and I have gained peace and joy in both worlds. First, action is necessary, then knowledge, in order that you may know that you know nothing and are no one. This is not easy to know. It is a thing that cannot be rightly learned by instruction, nor sewed on with needle nor tied on with thread. It is the gift of God." - Abu Sa’id ibn abi Khayr
"No action is without its side effects. " - Barry Commoner
"PAC [Political Action Committee] money is destroying the electoral process. It feeds the growth of special interest groups created solely to channel money into political campaigns. It creates an impression that every candidate is bought and owned by the biggest givers." - Barry Goldwater
"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
"Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone" - Charles de Gaulle, fully Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle
"Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own. " - Charles de Gaulle, fully Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle
"Man’s general way of thinking of the totality, i.e., his general world view, is crucial for overall order of the human mind itself. If he thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border (for every border is a division or break) then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole. " - David Bohm, fully David Joseph Bohm
"The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise, but to meet and work out difficulties when they do arise. We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking action. It's still good advice to cross bridges as we come to them. " - David J. Schwartz, fully David Joseph Schwartz
"The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe." - Deepak Chopra
"Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both." - John Andrew Holmes
"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. " - Edward de Bono
"Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists. " - Edward de Bono
"By far the larger part of it comes in life itself through the two great primary channels of action and experience — the work that we do and the relations we sustain in love and friendship to other lives." - Edward Howard Griggs
"A good action is never lost; it is a treasure laid up and guarded for the doer's need. " - Edwin Markham
"The impulse to perform a worthy action often springs from our best nature, but is afterwards tainted by the spur of selfishness or sinister interest." - Émile Souvestre
"In all men, thought and action start from a single source, namely feeling." - Epictetus "the Stoic" NULL
"One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action." - Eric Hoffer
"Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts." - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm
"Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts. He has to have a frame of orientation which permits him to organize a consistent picture of the world as a condition for consistent actions. He has to fight not only against the dangers of dying, starving, and being hurt, but also against another danger which is specifically human: that of becoming insane. In other words, he has to protect himself not only against the danger of losing his life but also against the danger of losing his mind. " - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm
"The lack of objectivity, as far as foreign nations are concerned, is notorious. From one day to another, another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one’s own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard — every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals which they serve." - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm
"The power of our intention and the energy it unleashes are dependent on our levels of coherence and intensity. The affirmation of our positive intentions in thought, feeling and action increases the power of our abilities. Nonetheless, it is important to appreciate that the matrix of physical, emotional, and mental levels of consciousness through which our personal and collective intentions and choices are explored and experienced require a “health warning” on interpreting the Law of Attraction too simplistically." - Ervin László
"Your actions, and your action alone, determines your worth. " - Evelyn Waugh, fully Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh
"Our religious belief usurps the place of our sensations, our imaginations of our judgment. We no longer look to actions, trace their consequences, and then deduce the rule; we first make the rule, and then, right or wrong, force the action to square with it. " - Frances Wright, known as Fanny Wright
"That action is best which provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number." - Francis Hutcheson
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." - Friedrich Engels
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You receive from the world what you give to the world." - Gary Zukav
"Although Freedom is, primarily, an undeveloped idea, the means it uses are external and phenomenal; presenting themselves in History to our sensuous vision. The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole springs of action — the efficient agents in this scene of activity. Among these may, perhaps, be found aims of a liberal or universal kind — benevolence it may be, or noble patriotism; but such virtues and general views are but insignificant as compared with the World and its doings. We may perhaps see the Ideal of Reason actualized in those who adopt such aims, and within the sphere of their influence; but they bear only a trifling proportion to the mass of the human race; and the extent of that influence is limited accordingly. Passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires, are on the other hand, most effective springs of action. Their power lies in the fact that they respect none of the limitations which justice and morality would impose on them; and that these natural impulses have a more direct influence over man than the artificial and tedious discipline that tends to order and self-restraint, law and morality. When we look at this display of passions, and the consequences of their violence; the Unreason which is associated not ,only with them, but even (rather we might say especially) with good designs and righteous aims; when we see the evil, the vice, the ruin that has befallen the most flourishing kingdoms which the mind of man ever created, we can scarce avoid being filled with sorrow at this universal taint of corruption: and, since this decay is not the work of mere Nature, but of the Human Will — a moral embitterment — a revolt of the Good Spirit (if it have a place within us) may well be the result of our reflections." - Georg Hegel, fully Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
"An essential part of any successful action on the part of the United States is an understanding on the part of the people of America of the character of the problem and the remedies to be applied. Political passion and prejudice should have no part. " - George Marshall, fully George Catlett Marshall, Jr.
"The assertion ‘I am morally bound to perform this action’ is identical with the assertion ‘This action will produce the greatest amount of good in the Universe’." - G. E. Moore, fully George Edward Moore
"A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action. You must act as you breathe. " - Georges Clemenceau, fully Georges Benjamin Clemenceau
"Purity of action cannot be separated from one's clarity of mind in the same moment." - Guy Finley