Quotes on Action

I'm involved in some action scenes, so they'll train me for that. I'll be working with my acting coach to prepare for my character.

Author: Aaliyah

Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.

Author: Jane Addams

The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action.

Author: Felix Adler

But though cognition is not an element of mental action, nor even in any real sense of the word an aspect of it, the distinction of cognition and conation has if properly defined a definite value.

Author: Samuel Alexander

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.

Author: Woody Allen

Active creation is conceived as a transitive action in which there is always presupposed an object about which the agent is concerned; it is virtually but not formally transitive because it makes, not presupposes, an object.

Author: William Ames

Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure.

Author: Kingsley Amis

Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.

Author: Gillian Anderson

Effective action is always unjust.

Author: Maya Angelou

Once you've established where you are, you go to the character and elaborate on expressions and action.

Author: Sergio Aragones

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

Author: Diane Arbus

Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.

Author: Hannah Arendt

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

Author: Aristotle

A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.

Author: Aristotle

For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Author: Mary Ash

I think it is important that you care about the characters, and you are not just waiting for the next action sequence but have a vested interested in what happens to them.

Author: Shawn Ashmore

Wikileaks is a mechanism to maximize the flow of information to maximize the amount of action leading to just reform.

Author: Julian Assange

Sleepy Hollow had a lot of action in it, even though it was a fairy-tale movie.

Author: Colleen Atwood

Action is the antidote to despair.

Author: Joan Baez

In reading plays, however, it should always be remembered that any play, however great, loses much when not seen in action.

Author: George Baker

Live action writers will give you a structure, but who the hell is talking about structure? Animation is closer to jazz than some kind of classical stage structure.

Author: Ralph Bakshi

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

Author: James Baldwin

It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

Author: Honore Balzac

As soon as I had proved this and, of course, also the normal pointing action and reactions in all other extremities and joints, I stopped the experiment.

Author: Robert Barany

I can't deny that some customers and prospects think it's the key to our future. But it's not. We're certainly supportive of the Dept. of Justice and the 20 states that have brought this action.

Author: Jim Barksdale

But in action, one defies one's character.

Author: Daniel Bell

Instant telecommunication allows better and updated information, lessons learnt and problems encountered to be exchanged and debated, it alerts us more quickly to problems and brings to many households around the world visions and information which hopefully spur us to action.

Author: Carol Bellamy

I want to do more action adventures and more romantic comedies.

Author: Maria Bello

Every other movie is one of those action things. I mean, 'Lost in Space'? A bunch of good actors running around shooting at special effects on a soundstage? I took my kids to see that and felt like I was on an acid trip.

Author: Tom Berenger

When we make the cerebral state the beginning of an action, and in no sense the condition of a perception, we place the perceived images of things outside the image of our body, and thus replace perception within the things themselves.

Author: Henri Bergson

The focus should not be on talking. Talk is cheap. It must be on action.

Author: Howard Berman

The problem is essentially that of communications to an army in action. After a rapid advance communications become disorganized, and there is a temporary halting until they are again in working order.

Author: John Bernal

Each action of the actor on the stage should be the visible concomitant of his thoughts.

Author: Sarah Bernhardt

Consult: To seek approval for a course of action already decided upon.

Author: Ambrose Bierce

When James Cameron brought me the script, which I developed with both Cameron and Jay Cocks, I wanted to make it a thriller, an action film, but with a conscience, and I found that it had elements of social realism.

Author: Kathryn Bigelow

I'm learning as much martial arts as I possibly can. My show is packed with action. Enough to get a rise.

Author: Traci Bingham

We operate under the law. Covert action authorities are communicated in a memorandum of notification.

Author: Cofer Black

If public opinion still endorses military action that's one thing, but if they wait maybe it will not. So it's not only impatience, but there are several other factors.

Author: Hans Blix

Mr. Speaker, in the years since we enacted our attack against Iraq, the threat from Iran has only grown more difficult, and our capacity to meet that threat actually has diminished. It is one of the reasons many of us opposed that action against Iraq.

Author: Earl Blumenauer

After September 11, when the United States took action to overthrow the Taliban, our interests and Iran's aligned, and we were able to coordinate quietly but effectively.

Author: Earl Blumenauer

I prefer that animation reach into places where live action doesn't go, and it seems like all of animation nowadays is trying to go where live action is.

Author: Don Bluth

I think Alone in the Dark was too much an action creature movie than a horror creature movie.

Author: Uwe Boll

Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists.

Author: Edward Bono

We are creating a fabulous franchise with an incredible female action hero.

Author: Jan Bont

I really believe action will always be there and will never disappear.

Author: Jan Bont

All real freedom springs from necessity, for it can be gained only through the exercise of the individual will, and that will can be roused to energetic action only by the force of necessity acting upon it from the outside to spur it to effort.

Author: Anna Brackett

King Lear alone among these plays has a distinct double action. Besides this, it is impossible, I think, from the point of view of construction, to regard the hero as the leading figure.

Author: Andrew Bradley

Theories are patterns without value. What counts is action.

Author: Constantin Brancusi

Let your actions speak louder than your words, for integrity is built on deeds, not declarations.

Author: Jennifer Lopez

There is a weapon we can fight with. That is the weapon of political action.

Author: Harry Bridges

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Author: Jacob Bronowski

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.

Author: Jacob Bronowski

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Author: Charlotte Bronte

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Author: Charlotte Bronte

I'm a big movie fan. After a show, if I'm on the bus or a plane, it's often hard to get to sleep, so I'll watch a film. An action film can even relax me.

Author: Garth Brooks

In bad weather, I spent hours drawing action figures on paper, coloring them, backing them on cardboard, then cutting them out and creating whole stories around their lives.

Author: Terry Brooks

Inaction may be the biggest form of action.

Author: Jerry Brown

The critic is a man who prefers the indolence of opinion to the trials of action.

Author: John Brown

Goals help you channel your energy into action.

Author: Les Brown

But once you allow yourself to recognize necessity, you find two things: One you find your options so restricted that the only course of action is obvious, and, two, that a great sense of freedom comes with the decision.

Author: Steven Brust

I was never able to convince myself that there was a cost-free alternative course, as from 1961, or that any of the different strategies since proposed, especially those involving stronger military action, would have made sense.

Author: William Bundy

Books are a real solace, friendships are good but action is better than all.

Author: John Burns

Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.

Author: Aaron Burr

Congress must not do something just for the sake of doing something. We must carefully and thoughtfully consider the implications of any action and whether that action will help or hinder our ultimate mission of protecting U.S. citizens from terror.

Author: Richard Burr

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

Author: George Bush

When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive.

Author: George Bush

If the law is a bad law, there is always the contingent right to take action that you would not otherwise take.

Author: James Callaghan

The place of exciting innovation - where the action is - that's Rhode Island!

Author: Donald Carcieri

But, as you have intimated, I am among those who would be very wary of any military action in the light of Saddam Hussein's willingness to allow the weapons inspectors to go in.

Author: George Carey

Fluorine has a protecting action against caries, but this is a local effect. If you drink it, you are running the risk of all kinds of toxic actions.

Author: Arvid Carlsson

I wouldn't even know - and I spent three years in the CIA - I wouldn't even know how you'd start a covert action program in a place like Iran. It would be extraordinarily difficult.

Author: Frank Carlucci

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

Author: Thomas Carlyle

Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.

Author: Thomas Carlyle

Without action, we are going to continue to allow Iran to be a safe harbor for terrorists, see its economy further deteriorate, and see the Middle East further destabilize.

Author: Russ Carnahan

Every person's every action has an effect.

Author: Rosanne Cash

So we are disappointed that some of our closest allies, including Canada, have not agreed with us on the urgent need for this military action against Iraq.

Author: Paul Cellucci

Japan's inexplicable lack of response to even consider a move to re-open their market to U.S. beef will sorely tempt economic trade action against Japan.

Author: Saxby Chambliss

Action based only on principles isn't always good even if it feels good.

Author: John Chancellor

Every action in our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.

Author: Edwin Chapin

Wherever you see a man who gives someone else's corruption, someone else's prejudice as a reason for not taking action himself, you see a cog in The Machine that governs us.

Author: John Chapman

Direct threats require decisive action.

Author: Dick Cheney

As soon as one nation claims the right to take preventive action, other countries will naturally do the same. If we go down that road, where are we going?

Author: Jacques Chirac

Today is the day for the complaining to end and for statesmanship to begin. Today I am taking action to cut state spending and balance the budget this year.

Author: Chris Christie

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Author: Winston Churchill

Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by evil.

Author: Emile Cioran

The best way to avoid a bad action is by doing a good one, for there is no difficulty in the world like that of trying to do nothing.

Author: John Clare

Energetic action on debt would make a radical difference to the prospects of many of the poorest countries in the world, at no practical cost to creditor countries.

Author: Kenneth Clarke

Man, like other organisms, is so perfectly coordinated that he may easily forget, whether awake or asleep, that he is a colony of cells in action, and that it is the cells which achieve, through him, what he has the illusion of accomplishing himself.

Author: Albert Claude

All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.

Author: Karl Clausewitz

A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action. You must act as you breathe.

Author: Georges Clemenceau

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.

Author: William Clifford

It is not enough to be well-intentioned; one must strive to put those intentions into action in a capable way. One must consider the effect his actions will have on others. Looked at like this, to persist in ignorance is itself dishonorable.

Author: Andrew Cohen

Like the canary in the coal mine, the climate changes already evident in the Arctic are a call to action.

Author: Susan Collins

No action is without its side effects.

Author: Barry Commoner

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

Author: Confucius

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

Author: Confucius

As in political so in literary action a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and the consistent narrowness of his outlook.

Author: Joseph Conrad

An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.

Author: Joseph Conrad

I can't accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain now to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.

Author: Robin Cook

Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture.

Author: Charles Cooley

In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.

Author: Calvin Coolidge

I think paranormal experiences are very personal, again, if they are that. Yes, sometimes I've felt that some things I would personally believe enough for me to take action on it... like, you know, I felt something happen in a hotel once that made me never stay there again.

Author: Andrea Corr

I feel like I'm a filmmaker; I don't feel I need to yell action and cut.

Author: John Cusack

What really helps a guy to become an action hero today is the directing of the movie. All those fast cuts.

Author: Jean Damme

In an action film you act in the action. If it's a dramatic film you act in the drama.

Author: Jean Damme

I played this character twice in live action, and now I've become an animated character. It was actually fun to see myself drawn - I've never been a drawn character before.

Author: Geena Davis

I have a Web site that parents and girls can use to learn about Title IX and take action if they find their school is not in compliance. Thirty years after Title IX passed, 80 percent of schools are not in compliance.

Author: Geena Davis

I may never get my own action figure, but at least I think what I'm doing is really legitimate musically.

Author: Gavin DeGraw

This synchronous action then will be the Subject, which is the representative harmony.

Author: Robert Delaunay

May the days be aimless. Do not advance action according to a plan.

Author: Don DeLillo

Think first of the action that is right to take, think later about coping with one's fears.

Author: Barbara Deming

Nonviolent action does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences.

Author: Barbara Deming

Rational behavior requires theory. Reactive behavior requires only reflex action.

Author: W. Deming

All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.

Author: Demosthenes

You can express a lot of things, a lot of action without speaking.

Author: Catherine Deneuve

There is no reality of consciousness independent of the effects of various vehicles of content on subsequent action (and hence, of course, on memory).

Author: Daniel Dennett

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

Author: John Dewey

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

Author: Charles Dickens

If you take my performance or my understanding of the role and my appreciation for story and then dress it in CGI, that I guess becomes an action film.

Author: Vin Diesel

I know as I'm taking my dying breath, the ambulance guy will ask me why they cancelled Action.

Author: Illeana Douglas

Courage follows action.

Author: Mack Douglas

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

Author: Peter Drucker

I want to play an action hero. I'm ready for roles that totally aren't me.

Author: Kirsten Dunst

I just don't want to be the damsel in distress. I'll scream on the balcony, but you've got to let me do a little action here.

Author: Kirsten Dunst

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.

Author: Meister Eckhart

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Author: Albert Einstein

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

Author: Dwight Eisenhower

The first thing I do is lay out that melody and figure out how it has to hold here and then finish to land here, because you know in advance you're going to want the melody to catch four things in the action.

Author: Danny Elfman

It's just about going out and getting the shot, so I have a great understanding of how to execute it, so that really helps me, and also having a good understanding of all the action that I'm shooting, it helps me in determining how I'm going to capture it.

Author: David Ellis

Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.

Author: Ralph Ellison

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Author: Ralph Emerson

We know the ideal isn't where the action is.

Author: Joseph Epstein

The undertaking of a new action brings new strength.

Author: Richard Evans

General Reynolds immediately found himself engaged with a force which greatly outnumbered his own, and had scarcely made his dispositions for the action when he fell, mortally wounded, at the head of his advance.

Author: Edward Everett

I worked for Sam Peckinpah on quite a bit of action in his films, and he got excited once in a while.

Author: Richard Farnsworth

I don't know what this definition of affirmative action is for some.

Author: Chaka Fattah

Global warming is real. It is happening today. It is being charted by our satellites. It is being charted by our scientists. It is being charted by those of us in this body, and I think the real key is if we are ready to admit that fact and take the action to make the necessary conversion.

Author: Diane Feinstein

An action doesn't have to be wrong just because it is not logical. It doesn't have to be right just because it has its logic.

Author: Lion Feuchtwanger

Action is character.

Author: F. Fitzgerald

If we had to go live action, I'd hold out for Tim Burton to direct.

Author: Phil Foglio

As you can probably tell, I like films and directors that bring a totally unique style to filming action.

Author: John Foster

Party action should follow, not precede the creation of a dominant popular sentiment.

Author: Judith Foster

When community action was put into federal law in the early sixties as part of the effort to combat poverty and social injustice, I supported it intellectually.

Author: Barney Frank

Community action is as valuable a principle on the international level as it has been domestically.

Author: Barney Frank

It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential.

Author: Barney Frank

Never confuse motion with action.

Author: Benjamin Franklin

With devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself.

Author: Thomas Fuller

A man is not good or bad for one action.

Author: Thomas Fuller

Words mean nothing. Action is the only thing. Doing. That's the only thing.

Author: Ernest Gaines

Have a bias toward action - let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.

Author: Indira Gandhi