Action Quotes - Page 40

• Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.

  Francois Rabelais

  Men, Thinking, Noble

  Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel: Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and his Son Pantagruel”, Library of Alexandria

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• Feel the underlying meaning of the teachings that are espoused by me or anyone else. The word's don't mean much. Words are supposed to be catalysts for higher states of attention. That is where the action is.

  Frederick Lenz

  Teaching, Mean, Attention

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• There is a difference between happiness, the supreme good, and the final end or goal toward which our actions ought to tend. For happiness is not the supreme good, but presupposes it, being the contentment or satisfaction of the mind which results from possessing it.

  Rene Descartes

  Differences, Goal, Mind

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• Actions whose motives he cannot understand that is, actions not prompted by the hope of profit.

  Andre Gide

  Profit, Motive

  "The Immoralist". Book by André Gide. Translated by R. Howard, 1902.

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• It has been said, and only half in jest, that a tough, professionally led union is a great force for improving management performance. It forces the manager to think about what he is doing and to be able to explain his actions and behavior.

  Peter Drucker

  Thinking, Half, Unions

  "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities". Book by Peter F. Drucker, 1973.

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• No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil.

  Peter Drucker

  Government, Evil, Needs

  Peter F. Drucker (2011). “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New”, p.178, Transaction Publishers

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• Through systematic terror, through indoctrination, through systematic manipulation of stimulus, reward, and punishment, we can today break man and convert him into brute animal... The first step toward survival is therefore to make government legitimate again by attempting to deprive it of these powers... by international action to ban such powers.

  Peter Drucker

  Animal, Men, Survival

  "Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World". Book by Peter F. Drucker, 1959.

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• The negroes are lovers of ludicrous actions, and hence all their ceremonies seem farcical.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Lovers, Ceremony, Seems

  "Curiosities of Literature". Book by Isaac D'Israeli, 1791 - 1834.

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• Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Animal, Simple, Views

  "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Our Natural Place", p. 243, 1983.

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• We build our personalities laboriously and through many years, and we cannot order fundamental changes just because we might value their utility; no button reading "positive attitude" protrudes from our hearts, and no finger can coerce positivity into immediate action by a single and painless pressing.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Attitude, Reading, Heart

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “Full House”, p.47, Harvard University Press

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• In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and now of the recession I observe a mounting pressure to co-operate and to promote "teamwork." For its anti-individualistic streak, such a drive is of course highly suspect; some people may not be so sensitive to it, but having seen the Hitlerjugend in action suffices for the rest of your life to be very wary of "team spirit." Very.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Teamwork, People, May

  "The strengths of the academic enterprise" by Edsger Dijkstra, www.cs.utexas.edu. February 9, 1994.

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• On the one hand, society needs a common faith and vigorous institutions with the power to coerce; and on the other, the individual as a human soul or as the bearer of a new and possibly saving heresy, must be free. It is difficult enough to reconcile these two needs, but the problem holds another hazard: the need of action under the pressure of time.

  Jacques Barzun

  Hands, Two, Soul

  "Bernard Shaw in Twilight". The Kenyon Review, 1943.

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• A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil; his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.

  Francis Quarles

  Heart, Evil, Despair

  Francis Quarles (1856). “Enchiridion: Containing Institutions Divine Contemplative Practical: Moral Ethical Oeconomical Political”, p.22

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• Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences. When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to "drop out," "turn on," and "tune in.

  Timothy Leary

  Tunes, Robots, Routine

  Timothy Leary (2009). “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out”, p.7, Ronin Publishing

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• My mother took too much, a great deal too much, care of me; she over-educated, over-instructed, over-dosed me with premature lessons of prudence: she was so afraid that I should ever do a foolish thing, or not say a wise one, that she prompted my every word, and guided my every action. So I grew up, seeing with her eyes, hearing with her ears, and judging with her understanding, till, at length, it was found out that I had not eyes, ears or understanding of my own.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Wise, Mother, Eye

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1826). “Works of Maria Edgeworth: Tales of fashionable life. 1826.- -v. 7. Patronage. 1825”, p.2

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• No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity.

  John Steinbeck

  Pain, Lying, Sleep

  John Steinbeck (2008). “Sweet Thursday”, p.316, Penguin

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• Surely only correct understanding could lead to correct action.

  Lois McMaster Bujold

  Understanding

  "The Curse of Chalion". Book by Lois McMaster Bujold, 2001.

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• There is something more severe than the problem with Thomas Friedman, which can be generalized to represent someone causing action while being completely unaccountable for his words.

  Thomas Friedman

  Problem, Severe

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• The object of a dialogical-liberterian action is not to 'dislodge' the oppressed from a mythological reality in order to 'bind' them to another reality. On the contrary, the object of dialogical action is to make it possible for the oppressed, by perceiving their adhesion, to opt to transform an unjust reality." "In order for the oppressed to unite they must first cut the umbilical cord of magic and myth which binds them to the world of oppression; the unity which links them to each other must be of a different nature.

  Paulo Freire

  Cutting, Reality, Order

  "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". Book by Paulo Freire, Chapter 4, Unity for Liberation, 1968.

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• speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.

  Thucydides

  Safety, Causes, Speculation

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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• When you have committed an action that you cannot bear to think about, that causes you to writhe in retrospect, do not seek to evade the memory: make yourself relive it, confront it repeatedly over and over, till finally, you will discover, through sheer repetition it loses its power to pain you. It works, I guarantee you, this sure-fire guilt-eradicator, like a homeopathic medicine - like in small doses applied to like. It works, but I am not sure that it is a good thing.

  Mary McCarthy

  Pain, Memories, Thinking

  "How I Grew". Book by Mary McCarthy, 1987.

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• I always begin with a character or characters, and then try to think up as much action for them as possible.

  John Irving

  Character, Thinking, Trying

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• Attention has its most powerful expression in purposeful action.

  Ilchi Lee

  Powerful, Expression, Attention

  FaceBook post by Ilchi Lee from Dec 20, 2013

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• The motive for our actions doesn't lie ahead of us. It's something behind us that we're trying to escape.

  Peter Høeg

  Lying, Trying, Our Actions

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• Most often, the reason something is "on your mind" is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcomes is; you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust. That's why it's on your mind.

  David Allen

  Mind, Different, Want

  David Allen (2015). “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”, p.36, Penguin

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