Action

If ever there was a case of clearer evidence than this of persons acting together, this case is that case.
~ William Saint Julien Arabin, in Arabiniana; or, The Remains of Mr Serjeant Arabin (1843).

What here is visioned, fact will prove --
As we put on the means, and move.
~ William Baylebridge, Proverbs (1939)

At some point we need to move on. We need to start doing some things. That day is fast approaching, if it's not here already. Our prom dress has been on for over [a] year and we've been standing there, with a corsage, waiting.
~ Billy Beane, The Press Democrat (8 December 2001). A's lose one closer, trade for another

Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
~ William Blake, Annotations to Lavater (1788).

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

The most sublime act is to set another before you.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

We must wake ourselves up! Or somebody else will take our place, and bear our cross, and thereby rob us of our crown.
~ William Booth

All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties.
~ William Bradford

Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.
~ William S. Burroughs, Towers Open Fire (1963 movie).

We all like people who do things, even if we only see their faces on a cigar-box lid.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, The Song of the Lark (1915). Part I: Friends of Childhood. Chapter 18

When an action is once done, it is right or wrong for ever; no accidental failure of its good or evil fruits can possibly alter that.
~ William Kingdon (W.K.) Clifford, in Contemporary Review (1877). The Ethics of Belief, I. The Duty Of Inquiry

You never know what you can do till you try.
~ William Cobbett, A Year's Residence in the United States of America (1818).

Disgust conceal'd
Is ofttimes proof of wisdom, when the fault
Is obstinate, and cure beyond our reach.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book III. The Garden

How many deeds, with which the world has rung,
From pride, in league with ignorance, have sprung!
~ William Cowper, from The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper (1842). Charity (written in 1782)

[P]ut your best foot foremost.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act IV, scene x

So what's my next move? To go fishing, of course. I bet yours will be, too.
~ Bill Dance, Bill Dance's Fishing (January 2002).

Rational behavior requires theory. Reactive behavior requires only reflex action.
~ W. Edwards Deming

The will for deed I doe accept.
~ Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes (1621). Second Week, Third Day, Part II

What is well done is done soon enough.
~ Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes (1621). First Week, Sixth Day

Men must not only know, they must act.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois

William James used to tell us we must follow thought with action, on pain of spiritual death. Yet we hear of bankers stealing, and cabinet officers grafting, and public service corporations expiating, and sit still and do nothing. This does not foreshadow death, it is death.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois

The instincts of action are the favorite haunts of happiness. To move, to creep, to stand, to walk, to run, to climb, to swim, at last to fly: what strange delight there is in these natural expressions of our powers! To be made whole one must stretch his legs and make friends with the sun. Are you broken-hearted? Go out for a four-mile tramp alone, and the spirits of the sky and the earth will heal you. Legs were made for walking.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey Of Human Life And Destiny (1929).

Back of ninety-nine out of one-hundred assertions that a thing cannot be done is nothing but the unwillingness to do it.
~ William Feather

Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.
~ William Feather

Do each daily task the best we can; act as though the eye of opportunity were always upon us.
~ William Feather

To have your life be as great as it can be, you need to give up the blaming. Find your role in the problem. Then take whatever action you need to handle your situation.
~ Bill Ferguson

Never mind what I told you -- you do as I tell you.
~ W.C. Fields

If your actions seem to undermine your words, you'll create problems no amount of jawboning can fix.
~ John William Gardner, On Leadership (1990).

The cynic says, "One man can't do anything." I say, "Only one man can do anything."
~ John William Gardner

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.
~ Bill Gates

We're only at the beginning of what we have to do here.
~ Bill Gates

It revolts me, but I do it!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, The Mikado (1885 opera). Act I

What, never?
No, never!
What, never?
Hardly ever!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore (1878 opera).

It was lights, camera, inaction.
~ Terry Gilliam (commenting on Lost in La Mancha in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival), The Associated Press (7 September 2002). Gilliam Chronicles Quixotic Journey

When possible make the decisions now, even if action is in the future. A reviewed decision usually is better than one reached at the last moment.
~ William B. Given, Jr.

Man is a creature that loves to act from himself; and actions performed in this way, have infinitely more of health and vigour in them, than the actions to which he is prompted by a will foreign to his own.
~ William Godwin, The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature in a Series of Essays (1797). Of Choice In Reading

We are men of action, lies do not become us.
~ William Goldman, The Princess Bride ("Westley" in the 1987 screenplay).

Amateur efforts do not, as a rule, meet with success, for the reason that too often no one is responsible and the element of self-interest wanting.
~ William Gilbert (W.G.) Grace, Cricket (1891).

[E]very act of mind is an act of consciousness.
~ Sir William Hamilton, from Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1858-60). Vol. I Metaphysics. Lecture XXXIV

A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness. This will apply to all displays of power or trials of skill, which are confined to the momentary, individual effort, and construct no permanent image or trophy of themselves without them.
~ William Hazlitt, Table Talk, Essays on Men and Manners (1821-1822). On the Indian Jugglers

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
~ William Hazlitt, Table Talk, Essays on Men and Manners (1821-1822). Whether Genius is Conscious of its own Power

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Spirit of the Age (1825). Mr. Brougham -- Sir F. Burdett

The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Spirit of the Age (1825). Mr. Coleridge

To do anything, to dig a hole in the ground, to plant a cabbage, to hit a mark, to move a shuttle, to work a pattern, -- in a word, to attempt to produce any effect, and to succeed, has something in it that gratifies the love of power, and carries off the restless activity of the mind of man.
~ William Hazlitt, Table Talk, Essays on Men and Manners (1821-1822). On The Pleasure Of Painting

What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do, especially in other people's minds.
~ William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1982).

The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (G.W.F.) Hegel, The Philosophy of History (1832). III. Philosophic History

You can do it gradually -- day by day and play by play -- if you want to do it, if you will to do it, if you work to do it over a sufficiently long period of time.
~ William E. Holl

The more a man acts for himself, the more does he develope himself.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government (1854 translation of 'The Limits of State Action'). CHAPTER III. On The Solicitude Of The State For The Positive Welfare Of The Citizen

We cannot assume the injustice of any actions which only create offense, and especially as regards religion and morals. He who utters or does anything to wound the conscience and moral sense of others, may indeed act immorally; but, so long as he is not guilty of being importunate, he violates no right.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (1792). Chapter 10

Whatever does not spring from a man's free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but still remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (1792). Chapter 3

Action is the normal completion of the act of will which begins as prayer. That action is not always external, but it is always some kind of effective energy.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Speculum Animae: Four Devotional Addresses (1911).

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
~ William James

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). The Gospel of Relaxation

[D]o every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty, so that, when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). The Laws of Habit

If the 'searching of our heart and reins' be the purpose of this human drama, then what is sought seems to be what effort we can make. He who can make none is but a shadow; he who can make much is a hero.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 2. Chapter XXVI: Will

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
~ William James

My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.
~ William James, Letter (30 April 1870)

The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.
~ William James

There is no more contemptible type of human character than that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer who spends his life in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890).

Nothing so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
~ William James, in The Letters of William Jame (1920) Vol 1. IX. To Carl Stumpf, January 1 1886

[T]he deepest spring of action in us is the sight of action in another.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). What the Native Reactions Are

Voluntary action is at all times a resultant of the compounding of our impulsions with our inhibitions.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). The Will

With no attempt there can be no failure; with no failure, no humiliation. So our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do. . . .
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 1. Chapter X: The Consciousness of Self

The active only, have the true relish of life.
~ William Jay, Morning Exercises for the Closet: For Every Day in the Year (1828). Dec. 9

If it is to be, it is up to me.
~ William H. Johnson

Sometimes you must fake it until you make it . . . Act yourself into a new way of thinking and think yourself into a new way of acting.
~ Willie Jolley, A Setback is a Setup for a Comeback (September 1999).

To make our influence felt we must live our faith, we must practice what we believe.
~ William George Jordan, The Majesty of Calmness (1900). The Power of Personal Influence

Action takes place only where the ball goes.
~ William J. "Bill" Klem

The man whose first question, after what he considers to be a right course of action has presented itself, is "What will people say?" is not the man to do anything at all.
~ Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane

A thing worth doing which is ill done is hardly a thing at all.
~ William Richard (W.R.) Lethaby, in The Imprint (January 1913). Art and Workmanship

[N]o matter how excellently a man's soul may be inclined to the performance of a good action, in ninety cases out of a hundred he is driven away from it by dread of the consequences.
~ , Simon the Jester (1909). Chapter I

Decide promptly, but never give any reasons. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong.
~ William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

Try and do a water deed each day. Even if it's something as simple as giving thanks for the water you drink. No matter how small or large your effort, you and the living world around you will benefit.
~ William E. Marks

There are some men whom a staggering emotional shock, so far from making them mental invalids for life, seems, on the other hand, to awaken, to galvanize, to arouse into an almost incredible activity of soul.
~ William McFee, Harbours of Memory (1921).

It's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it that makes the difference.
~ Wilson Mitchell

And the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship's sake that ye do them.
~ William Morris

Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the discussion, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.
~ William (W.H.) Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951).

Some investors have trouble making decisions to buy or sell. In other words, they vacillate and can't make up their minds. They are unsure because they really don't know what they are doing. They do not have a plan, a set of principles, or rules to guide them and, therefore, are uncertain of what they should be doing.
~ William J. O'Neil

What we do is never understood, but only praised and blamed.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals -- these alone are worth the struggle.
~ William Osler, from The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, No. 58 (January 1896). An Alabama Student

Rarely Promise: But, if Lawful, constantly Perform.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Promising

The more merciful Acts thou dost, the more Mercy thou wilt receive.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693).

Keep looking up!
~ William Leroy Pettingill

The best time to do a thing is when it can be done.
~ William Pickens, Fifty Years of Emancipationn (1913).

Ninety-nine and a half just won't do.
~ Wilson Pickett

Always, always, always do what you can.
~ Bill Purdin, Legend, Inc. (accessed May 2003). Quote Archives.

A decision is the action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.
~ Arthur William Radford, in Time Magazine (25 February 1957). Man Behind the Power

Never do to-day what you can
Put off till to-morrow.
~ William Brighty Rands, Lilliput Levee (1864).

To try may be to die, but not to care is never to be born.
~ William Redfield, in The New York Times (1968).

No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain.
~ Frederick William (F.W.) Robertson

Opportunities arise and sometimes you miss 'em, but what are you gonna do? Have you ever heard of a ballplayer batting 1.000? It doesn't happen. You do the best you can.
~ William Rosenberg, in Restaurants and Institutions magazine (1 March 2002). William Rosenberg: On never taking success for granted

Everybody can do something toward creating in his own environment kindly feelings rather than anger, reasonableness rather than hysteria, happiness rather than misery.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell (lecture to the National Secular Society; 6 March 1927), Why I Am Not A Christian (1964).

Do more than you're supposed to do and you can have or be or do anything you want.
~ Bill Sands

Think of all you planned to do. . . .
Have you done the best you can?
~ Robert William Service, It Is Later Than You Think (1921).

A deed of dreadful note.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act III, scene ii

Action is eloquence.
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Act III, scene ii

And it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds,
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act V, scene ii

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part I. Act III, scene ii

Each your doing,
So singular in each particular,
Crowns what you are doing in the present deed,
That all your acts are queens.
~ William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 94

He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene vii

I have a kind of alacrity in sinking.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act III, scene v

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene vii

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Let's lack no discipline, make no delay:
For, lords, tomorrow is a busy day.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act V, scene iii

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene ii

That it should come to this!
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene ii

That we would do
We should do when we would.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act IV, scene vii

The attempt and not the deed,
Confounds us.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

The sun shines hot, and if we use delay,
Cold biting winter mars our hop'd for hay.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part III

The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest

They will eat like wolves and fight like devils.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V

[T]hings in motion sooner catch the eye
Than what stirs not.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act III, scene iii

Things without all remedy,
Should be without regard; what's done is done.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act III, scene ii

Thou hast done a deed whereat valour will weep.
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus

'Tis deeds must win the prize.
~ William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew. Act II, scene i

Virtue itself turns vice being misapplied;
And vice sometime's by action dignified.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene iii

What act
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene iv

Whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

What's done cannot be undone.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Where is your ancient courage? you were used
To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating.
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Act IV, scene i

Why, then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act II, scene ii

Why then tonight let us assay our plot.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well. Act III, scene vii

You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after; the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is call'd on.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act II, scene iv

So in each action 'tis success
That gives it all its comeliness.
~ William Somervile, Fables. The Fortune-Hunter, Canto III

[My] principles put into the shade the impoverished "reaction" theories, which view all that transpires in the person, even mental activity, solely as processes of response to environmental stimuli. While such a conception may be efficacious to a considerable extent in zoology (although even here it is insufficient by itself) it is at all events wholly inadequate for human beings. Those specifically human modes of living that are accompanied in large measure by experience are certainly never consummated through mere responses; under them, on the contrary, the person has in his own right a determinative effect upon the world; his relations with the world are extended and multiplied by reason of his spontaneous activities. The world is the point of attack, the raw material for these spontaneous actions, though it also proceeds to offer resistance, and to set limits, so that spontaneous action is integrated with reaction, and is thereby made specific.
~ William Stern (Wilhelm Louis Stern), General Psychology from the Personalistic Standpoint (1938).

I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.
~ William (W.) Clement Stone

Tough decisions never get easier to make; indecision is the quickest killer of ideas and men.
~ Willi Unsoeld

I guess I'm just not bright enough to stop.
~ Bill Veeck, Jr.

A generous action is its own reward.
~ William Walsh, in Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant (1709). Elegy. Upon quitting his mistress

Do more than belong, participate.
Do more than care, help.
Do more than believe, practice.
Do more than be fair, be kind.
Do more than forgive, forget.
Do more than dream, work.
~ William Arthur Ward

From now on, I'll connect the dots my own way.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Do you wish the world were better?
Let me tell you what to do.
Set a watch upon your actions,
Keep them always straight and true.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Wishing

Whatever the task that comes your way,
Just take it as part of your luck.
Look it right square in the eyes, and say,
"This is MY task, I'll do it to-day":
Don't pass the buck.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Hello, Boys! (1919). Passing the Buck

With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It does not take much strength to do things but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.
~ Frederick B. Wilcox

It ain't nothing to find no starting place in the world. You just start from where you find yourself.
~ August Wilson, Quoted in Famous Black Quotations (1995).

We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play?
~ Bud Wilkinson

It is better to lay your life upon the altar of worthy endeavor than to luxuriate and perish as a weed.
~ Albert L. Williams

Let's have no empty talk from this assembly, let's get something done.
~ Betty Williams, Speech to the People's Assembly at the Annual Peace March from Perugio to Assissi A People's United Nations (22 September 1995)

We make our own whiskey and our own smoke, too. Ain't too many things these ole boys can't do.
~ Hank Williams, Jr.

Not only should you believe in what you are doing, but you should know what you are doing.
~ Mason Williams

On weekdays it's tough to get people to come out to the matches. I do perform better in front of a large crowd. I guess that whole entertainer thing in me comes out.
~ Serena Williams, The Associated Press (8 November 2002). Serena Williams Beats Smashnova

I'm going to do something. Get hold of myself and make myself a new life!
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). Scene Four

Our sphere of action is life's happiness,
And he who thinks beyond, thinks like an ass.
~ John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester, A Satire Against Mankind (1675).

We lose the fear of making decisions, great and small, as we realize that should our choice prove wrong we can, if we will, learn from the experience. Should our decision be the right one, we can thank God for giving us the courage and the grace that caused us so to act.
~ Bill Wilson, As Bill Sees It: The A.A. Way of Life (December 1967).

The devil made me do it!
~ Clerow "Flip" Wilson, Flip Wilson Show special (22 September 1969).

It's not a question of who's going to throw the first stone; it's a question of who's going to start building with it.
~ Sloan Wilson

Thought and theory must precede all action, that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.
~ William Wordsworth

Action is transitory, -- a step, a blow;
The motion of a muscle, this way or that --
'Tis done.
~ William Wordsworth, The Borderers (1795-96).

From the body of one guilty deed,
A thousand ghostly fears, and haunting thoughts, proceed!
~ William Wordsworth, Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820 (1822). XXXI: Echo, upon the Gemmi

Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely calculated less or more.
~ William Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822). Inside of King's College Chapel, Cambridge

The Light of Lights
Looks always on the motive, not the deed,
The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.
~ William Butler Yeats, The Countess Cathleen (1899).