We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818), letter to John Adams, 1774

I've arrived at this outermost¹ edge of my life by my own actions. Where I am is thoroughly² unacceptable. Therefore, I must stop doing what I've been doing.

Alice Koller, An Unknown Woman, 1982

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting³ a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate⁴ by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Actions lie louder than words.

Carolyn Wells

Deliberation is the function of the many; action is the function of one.

Charles de Gaulle (1890 - 1970), War Memoirs⁵, 1960

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

You cannot have a proud and chivalrous⁶ spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry⁷; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.

Demosthenes (384 BC - 322 BC), Third Olynthiac

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

Dorothy Day (1897 - 1980), The Long Loneliness, 1952

An event had happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797), Speeches... in the Trial of Warren Hastings, May 5, 1789

Action is character.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940), The Last Tycoon⁸, 1941

You ask me why I do not write something....I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled⁹ into actions and into actions which bring results.

Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910), in Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale, 1951

Happiness lies not in the mere¹⁰ possession of money. It lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), Speeches... in the Trial of Warren Hastings, May 5, 1789

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), Fireside chat on national defense¹¹, May 26, 1940

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves he is not a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

Georges Clemenceau (1841 - 1929), Conversation with Jean Martet, January 1 1929

Somewhere deep down we know that in the final analysis we do decide things and that even our decisions to let someone else decide are really our decisions, however pusillanimous¹².

Harvey Cox, On Not Leaving It to the Snake, 1967

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

Herbert Hoover (1874 - 1964)

Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it a charm.

Jean Paul Richter (1763 - 1825)

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

John Locke (1632 - 1704)

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Life is one long process of getting tired.

Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902), Notebooks, 1912

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.

Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), Rasselas, 1759

In this theater of man's life, it is reserved only for God and for angels to be lookers-on.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)

We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with high and resolute¹³ courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous¹⁴ performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily¹⁵; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting¹⁶ out.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), Address at the opening of the gubernatorial campaign, New York City, October 5, 1898

Delay is preferable to error.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), Letter to George Washington, May 16, 1792