All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
—Harry S. Truman
There were so many people in the world who wasted their aliveness, who hung back when they should reach out, who sat out when they should join in, who hung on when they should let go.
—Jessie Evans in Betting on You
Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.
—George Burns
But talk was cheap and useless. Action was what mattered.
—Sarah Dessen in What Happened to Goodbye
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
—William James
Love can do much, but duty more.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My father . . . used to say, "I need my anger. It obliges me to take action." I think my father was partly right. Anger arises, naturally, to signal disturbing situations that might require action. But actions initiated in anger perpetuate suffering. The most effective actions are those conceived in the wisdom of clarity.
—Sylvia Boorstein
Don't do nothing because you can't do everything. Do something. Anything.
—Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.
—Jerry Garcia
Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.
—C. S. Lewis
I've found that often the quality you see in successful people is knowing when to take the initiative, and being quick about it. I've never sat around, waiting for someone to tell me to take charge. I just do it.
—R.K. Lilley in Bad Things
When deeds speak, words are nothing.
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
It is well to think well; it is divine to act well.
—Horace Mann
The soul's joy lies in doing.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.
—Aneurin Bevan