Human Actions Quotes

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

  Aristotle

  Nature, Philosophical, Passion

  "Rhetoric". Book by Aristotle. Book I, 1369a.5,

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

  Nhat Hanh

  Forgiveness, Peace, Practice

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2005). “Wisdom from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life”, p.36, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

  35 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Beauty, Spiritual

  Letter of 1950, as quoted in "The New York Times", March 29, 1972.

  170 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

  Margaret Mead

  Inspirational, Life, Friendship

  Margaret Mead, Robert B. Textor (2005). “The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future”, p.12, Berghahn Books

  269 Copy quote

  Show source

• A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.

  Albert Einstein

  Nature, Compassion, Animal

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.339, Princeton University Press

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• actions speak louder than words

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Inspirational, Suicide, Wisdom

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.659, Simon and Schuster

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Wisdom, Philosophical, Effort

  104 Copy quote

• ... no human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice.

  John Ruskin

  Men, Justice, Political

  John Ruskin (1872). “"Unto this Last": Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy”, p.21

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's obvious that there are vast variety of consequentialist views, depending on what we think goodness consists in, what our notion of consequence is, and what level (or levels) of human action we think the principle should be applied.

  Dale Jamieson

  Thinking, Views, Principles

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A burning desire is the greatest motivator of every human action.

  Paul J. Meyer

  Desire, Burning, Action

  29 Copy quote

• Positive human action is not only possible, but pervasive; human beings can improve and choose light and so on. And this is all happening.

  George Saunders

  Light, Action, Humans

  Source: www.nationalbook.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Kindness and generosity ... form the true morality of human actions.

  Madame de Stael

  Kindness, Generosity, Morality

  6 Copy quote

• The history of mankind is the history of ideas. For it is ideas, theories, and doctrines that guide human action, determine the ultimate ends men aim at, and the choice of the means employed for the attainment of these ends.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Life, Mean, Men

  Ludwig Von Mises (1947). “Planned Chaos”, p.49, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature can not be changed

  Abraham Lincoln

  Nature, Words Of Wisdom, Action

  Cooper Union Address, delivered 27 February 1860, New York, NY

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every human actions becomes dangerous when it is deprived of human feeling. When they are performed with feeling and respect for human values, all activities become constructive.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Feelings, Action

  Dalai Lama, Sofia Stril-Rever (2010). “My Spiritual Journey”, p.10, Harper Collins

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The three most effective incentives to human action may be ... classified as creed, greed and dread. ... In examining the scientist it is perhaps worth while to examine how far he is moved by these three incentives. I think that, rather peculiarly and rather exceptionally, he is very little moved by dread. ... He is in fact essentially a person who has been taught he must be fearless in his dealing with facts.

  Robert Watson-Watt

  Science, Thinking, Effectiveness

  7 Copy quote

• Take, say, the solidarity movement in Central America, which I think is what you probably had in mind. To a large extent, it comes out of mainstream Christianity, based on beliefs that have had outrageous human consequences in the past, and that I think are totally indefensible. In this case, they happen to lead to some of the most courageous, heroic, and honourable human action that's taking place anywhere in the world. Well, that's how life is, I guess. It doesn't come in neat little packages.

  Noam Chomsky

  Past, Thinking, America

  Source: chomsky.info

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Indeed our survival and liberation depend upon our recognition of the truth when it is spoken and lived by the people. If we cannot recognize the truth, then it cannot liberate us from untruth. To know the truth is to appropriate it, for it is not mainly reflection and theory. Truth is divine action entering our lives and creating the human action of liberation.

  James H. Cone

  Reflection, Creating, People

  69 Copy quote

• If such external influences are intrinsic to religion, then logic and scientific thought dictate that there must be a mechanism by which this influence is transmitted. A religious or spiritual belief that involves an invisible undetectable force that nonetheless influences human actions and behavior or that of the world itself produces a situation in which a believer has no choice but to have faith and abandon logic--or simply not care.

  Lisa Randall

  Spiritual, Religious, Choices

  12 Copy quote

• All human action is expressive; a gesture is an intentionally expressive action. All art is expressive - of its author and of the situation in which he works - but some art is intended to move us through visual gestures that transmit, and perhaps give release to, emotions and emotionally charged messages. Such art is expressionist.

  Norbert Lynton

  Art, Moving, Giving

  6 Copy quote

• The methods of peace propaganda which aim at establishing peace doctrine by argument and by creating a feeling favorable to peace in general seem to fall short of reaching the springs of human action and of dealing with the causes of the conduct which they seek to modify.

  Elihu Root

  Spring, Fall, Creating

  Elihu Root (1916). “Addresses on International Subjects”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Forgiveness allows us to live in the sunlight of the present, not the darkness of the past. Forgiveness alone, of all our human actions, opens up the world to the miracle of infinite possibility.

  Kent Nerburn

  Past, Miracle, Darkness

  26 Copy quote

• I will be guided by the Christian ethic and an awareness that human action is by nature transient.

  Horst Kohler

  Christian, Ethics, Action

  8 Copy quote

• No honest work of man or woman "fails"; it feeds the sum of all human action.

  Michelene Wandor

  Inspirational, Men, Action

  4 Copy quote

• Every human action, whether it has become positive or negative, must depend on motivation.

  Dalai Lama

  Motivation, Negative, Action

  7 Copy quote