Inaction Quotes - Page 6

• 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs sparked a rising wave of consumer indignation. But...it takes a major catastrophe to carry legal and enforcement action over the hump of lethargy and inaction....Today, nearly forty years later, the situation is worse, not better.

  John Grant Fuller

  Dark, Years, Pigs

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• True prayer is not a prelude to inaction.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Prayer, Prelude

  Mahatma Gandhi (1975). “Collected Works”

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• Boredom is that awful state of inaction when the very medicine ― that is, activity ― which could solve it, is seen as odious. Archery? It is too cold, and besides, the butts need re-covering; the rats have been at the straw. Music? To hear it is tedious; to compose it, too taxing. And so on. Of all the afflictions, boredom is ultimately the most unmanning. Eventually, it transforms you into a great nothing who does nothing ― a cousin to sloth and a brother to melancholy.

  Margaret George

  Cousin, Brother, Archery

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• The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him. If they really knew who he was, they would tremble. For Chuang Tsǔ spent his life in preaching the great creed of Inaction, and in pointing out the uselessness of all things.

  Oscar Wilde

  Lying, Perspective, Healthy

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.222, University of Chicago Press

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• The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything. The sage is quiet because he is not moved, not because he wills to be quiet. . . . Joy does all things without concern. For emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness, silence, and non-action are the root of all things.

  Zhuangzi

  Wise, Men, Roots

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• Boredom is that awful state of inaction when the very medicine - that is, activity - which could solve it, is seen as odious.

  Margaret George

  Archery, Medicine, Boredom

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• As Albert Camus wrote, the doctor’s role is as a witness – to witness authentically the reality of humanity, and to speak out against the horrors of political inaction... The only crime equaling inhumanity is the crime of indifference, silence, and forgetting.

  James Orbinski

  Reality, Doctors, Speaks Out

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• We have to remind ourselves that we are not the transitory body, we are not the person who is having experiences, we are not affected by action or inaction.

  Frederick Lenz

  Yoga, Body, Action

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• Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.

  Albert Camus

  Retirement, Mediocrity, Mediocre

  Albert Camus (2012). “Happy Death”, p.82, Vintage

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• Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Soul, Feelings, Mind

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1988). “Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: With Supplementary Essays and Poems from the Twentieth Century”, p.76, Orchises Press

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• Contentment is never the outcome of fulfillment, of achievement, or of the possession of things; it is not born of action or inaction. It comes with the fullness of what is, not in the alteration of it.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Achievement, Contentment, Outcomes

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2010). “Commentaries on Living”, p.250, M-y books ltd

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• Acceptance is not a state of passivity or inaction. We are not saying you can't change the world, right wrongs or replace evil with good. Acceptance is, in fact, the first step to successful action. If you don't fully accept a situation precisely the way it is, you will have difficulty changing it.

  Peter McWilliams

  Inspirational, Change, Acceptance

  "Life 101: everything we wish we had learned about life in school -- but didn't".

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• No, I have no desire for riches. Honest poverty and a conscience, torpid through virtuous inaction, are more to me than corner lots and praise.

  Mark Twain

  Desire, Riches, Poverty

  Mark Twain (1994). “Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches”, p.157, Penguin

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• For us to ignore by inaction the slaughter of American civilians and American soldiers, whether in nightclubs or airline terminals, is simply not in the American tradition. Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty.

  Ronald Reagan

  Self, Soldier, Defense

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.288, Simon and Schuster

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• Detroit is a fascinating place, because things are so bad there that the dystopia has almost become utopian. People know they can't rely on the state, that public infrastructure is broken, and they've taken their own measures. People are growing their own food and selling their produce to local stores and restaurants. It's certainly not a fix-all; Detroit's problems are too deep-rooted for quick-fix solutions. But it's a hopeful sign. Detroiters are crafting their own solutions rather than being passive in the face of the city's and state's actions and inactions.

  Sasha Abramsky

  Taken, People, Broken

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Change quotes were meant to move us from inaction to action.

  Jon Jones

  Change, Moving, Action

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• It is wisdom to take occasional furlough. In the long run, we shall do more by sometimes doing less. On, on, on for ever, without recreation may suit spirits emancipated from this 'heavy clay', but while we are in this tabernacle, we must every now and then cry halt, and serve the Lord by holy inaction and consecrated leisure. Let no tender conscience doubt the lawfulness of going out of harness for a while

  Charles Spurgeon

  Running, Long, Doubt

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• Not complete inaction, which is an error, a confusion, a self-delusion, an impossibility, but action full and
  free done without subjection to sense and passion, desireless and unattached works, are the first secret of perfection.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Passion, Errors, Self

  Sri Aurobindo (1995). “Essays on the Gita”, p.107, Lotus Press

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• The universe may be tenderly indifferent to our fate, but we shouldn’t be. We are our brothers’ keepers. There is right, and there is wrong. There are consequences to our actions or inactions. Disregard can be an act of violence.

  John Dufresne

  Brother, Fate, May

  John Dufresne (2014). “No Regrets, Coyote”, p.78, Serpent's Tail

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• Procrastination most often arises from a sense that there is too much to do, and hence no single aspect of the to-do worth doing. . . . Underneath this rather antic form of action-as-inaction is the much more unsettling question whether anything is worth doing at all.

  Mark Kingwell

  Procrastination, Too Much, Action

  "Later" by James Surowiecki, www.newyorker.com. October 11, 2010.

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• It is not necessary for a man to be actively bad in order to make a failure in life; simple inaction will accomplish it. Nature has everywhere written her protest against idleness; everything which ceases to struggle toward an ideal, the constant effort to get higher and further, which develops manhood and character.

  James Terry White

  Struggle, Character, Simple

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• When the worms are scarce, what does a hen do? Does she stop scratching? She does not. She scratches all the harder. A lot of businessmen have been showing less sense than a hen since orders became scarce. They have laid off salesmen; they have stopped or reduced their advertising; they have simply resigned themselves to inaction and, of course, to pessimism. If a hen knows enough to scratch all the harder when the worms are scarce, surely businessmen ... ought to have gumption enough to scratch all the harder for business.

  B. C. Forbes

  Perseverance, Order, Gumption

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• The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it's silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable).

  Ray Dalio

  Life, Pain, Silly

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• Fear is a wet blanket that smothers the fiery passion God deposited in your heart when he formed you. Fear freezes us into inaction. Frozen ideas, frozen souls, frozen bodies can't move, can't dream, can't risk, can't love, and can't live. Fear chains us.

  Stasi Eldredge

  Dream, Moving, Passion

  Stasi Eldredge (2013). “Becoming Myself: Embracing God's Dream of You”, p.108, David C Cook

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• Action or inaction are both forms of leadership and standard setting.

  Seth Godin

  Action, Form, Standards

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