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Action: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Let's meet and either do or die.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER — The Island Princess. Act II. Sc. 2.
Of every noble action the intent Is to give worth reward, vice punishment.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER The Captain. Act V. Sc. 5.
Think that day lost whose (low) descending Sun Views from thy hand no noble action done.— JACOB BOBART — In David Krieg's
Album in British Museum. See also STANIFORD-Art of Reading. That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it; This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it.— ROBERT BROWNING — A Grammarian's
Funeral. What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.— BURNS — Address to the Unco Guid.
Put his shoulder to the wheel. C.— BURTON — Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. II. Sect 1. Memb. 2.
To-morrow let us do or die.— CAMPBELL — Gertrude of Wyoming. Pt. III. St. 37.
Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.— CARLYLE — Essays. Signs of the Times.
The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new. Attributed to CATO by BACON- Apothegms. No. 247. He is at no end of his actions blest Whose ends will make him greatest and not best.— GEORGE CHAPMAN — Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act V. Sc. 1.
It is better to wear out than to rust out. BISHOP CUMBERLAND. See Horne's Sermon-On the Duty of Contending for the Truth. Actions of the last age are like almanacs of the last year.— SIR JOHN DENHAM — The Sophy.
A Tragedy. For strong souls Live like fire-hearted suns; to spend their strength In furthest striving action.— GEORGE ELIOT — Spanish Gypsy. Bk. 4.
A great mind is a good sailor, as a great heart is.— EMERSON — English Traits. Voyage to
England. Chap. II. The manly part is to do with might and main what you can do.— EMERSON — The Conduct of Life.
Wealth. Our acts, our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.— JOHN FLETCHER — Upon an Honest Man's Fortune. L. 37.
A fiery chariot, borne on buoyant pinions, Sweeps near me now! I soon shall ready be To pierce the ether's high, unknown dominions, To reach new spheres of pure activity!— GOETHE — Faust. Bk. 1. Sc. 1.
Do well and right, and let the world sink.— HERBERT — Country Parson. Ch. XXIX.
Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting, where, And when, and how thy business may be done. Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveller, Though he alights sometimes, still goeth on.— HERBERT — Temple. Church Porch. St. 57.
Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing's so hard but search will find it out.— HERRICK — Seek and Find.
A man that's fond precociously of stirring Must be a spoon.— HOOD — Morning Meditations.
That action which appears most conducive to the happiness and virtue of mankind. S.— FRANCES HUTCHESON — A System of
Moral Philosophy. The General Notions of Rights, and Laws Explained. Bk. II. Ch. III. Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Boswell's Life of
Johnson. 1775. When desperate ills demand a speedy cure, Distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Irene. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 87.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.— LOCKE — Human Understanding. Bk. I. Ch. 3.
Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait.— LONGFELLOW — Psalm of Life.
The good one, after every action, closes His volume, and ascends with it to God. The other keeps his dreadful day-book open Till sunset, that we may repent; which doing, The record of the action fades away, And leaves a line of white across the page, Now if my act be good, as I believe, It cannot be recalled. It is already Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished. The rest is yours.— LONGFELLOW — Christus, The Golden Legend. Pt. VI.
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act, act in the living present! Heart within and God o'erhead.— LONGFELLOW — Psalm of Life.
With useless endeavour, Forever, forever, Is Sisyphus rolling His stone up the mountain!— LONGFELLOW — The Masque of Pandora.
Chorus of the Eumenides. Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.— LOWELL — Among my Books. Rousseau
and the Sentimentalists. He nothing common did, or mean, Upon that memorable scene.— ANDREW MARVELL — A Horatian Ode.
Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. So much one man can do, That does both act and know.— ANDREW MARVELL — A Horatian Ode.
Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. Awake, arise, or be forever fall'n!— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. I. L. 330.
Execute their aery purposes.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Book I. L. 430.
Those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. VIII. L. 600.
Push on,-keep moving.— THOMAS MORTON — A Cure for the Heartache. Act II. Sc. 1.
What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.— WENDELL PHILLIPS — Speech. The
Pilgrims. Dec. 21, 1855. Not always actions show the man; we find Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.— POPE — Moral Essays. Epistle I. L. 109.
But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm, Is often laudable; to do good, sometime, Accounted dangerous folly.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 74.
From this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 146.
How my achievements mock me! I will go meet them.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 1.
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 7. L. 1.
In such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears.— Shakespeare — Coriolanus. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 75.
I profess not talking: only this, Let each man do his best.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 92.
So smile the Heavens upon this holy act That after hours with sorrow chide us not!— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act II. Sc. 6. L. 1.
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 19.
S. *** the blood more stirs To rouse a lion, than to start a hare.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 197.
Things done well, And with a care, exempt themselves from fear; Things done without example, in their issue Are to be fear'd.— Shakespeare — Henry VIII. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 88.
We must not stint Our necessary actions, in the fear To cope malicious censurers.— Shakespeare — Henry VIII. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 76.
Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.— SHIRLEY — Death's Final Conquest.
Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act.— SOPHOCLES — Fragment 288.
Rightness expresses of actions, what straightness does of lines; and there can no more be two kinds of right action than there can be two kinds of straight line. Y.— HERBERT SPENCER — Social Statics. Ch. XXXII. Par. 4.
Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.— TENNYSON — The Charge of the Light Brigade. St. 2.
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends; and that the most liberal professions of good-will are very far from being the surest marks of it.— GEORGE WASHINGTON — Social Maxims.
Friendship. Action is transitory, a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle-this way or that.— WORDSWORTH — The Borderers. Act III.
And all may do what has by man been done.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night VI. L. 611.
Quod est, eo decet uti: et quicquid agas, agere pro viribus. What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.— CICERO — De Senectute. IX.
Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum. There is a mean in all things; and, moreover, certain limits on either side of which right cannot be found.— HORACE — Satiræ. I. 1. 106.
In medias res. Into the midst of things. C.— HORACE — Ars Poetica. CXLVIII.
Quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te conatus non pœniteat votique peracti? What is there that you enter upon so favorably as not to repent of the undertaking and the accomplishment of your wish?— JUVENAL — Satiræ. X. 5.
Actus dei nemini facit injuriam. The act of God injures no one. Law Maxim. Factum a judice quod ad ejus officium non spectat, non ratum est. An act of a judge which does not relate to his office, is of no force. Law Maxim. Nunquam ædepol temere tinniit tintinnabulum; Nisi quis illud tractat aut movet, mutum est, tacet. The bell never rings of itself; unless some one handles or moves it it is dumb.— PLAUTUS — Trinummus. IV. 2. 162.
Actum ne agas. Do not do what is already done.— TERENCE — Phormio. II. 3. 72.