Action

"Action implies motion; but there may be motion, as in a clock, where, properly speaking, there is no agent. Many motions necessary to life are continually going on in the human body; as those of the heart, lungs, and arteries: but these are not human actions, because man is not the cause of them. For the same reason, breathing, and the motion of the eyelids, are not actions; because, though we may act for a little time in suspending them, for the purpose of seeing or hearing more accurately, they commonly go on without any care of ours; and, while they do so, we are, in regard to them, not active, but passive. ... All action is the work of an agent, that is, of a being who acts; and every being who acts is the beginner of that motion which constitutes the action."

"Man is his own star, and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate. Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts, our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still."

"That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it. This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it."

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

"Tempests occasionally shake our dwellings and dissipate our commerce; but they scourge before them the lazy elements, which without them would stagnate into pestilence."

"Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus much: The end of man is an action, and not a thought, though it were the noblest."

"Awake, arise, or be forever falln!"

"So much one man can do, That does both act and know."

"Ye been oure lord, dooth with youre owene thyng Right as yow list."

"Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or glorious."

"Put his shoulder to the wheel."

"Action is transitory, a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle—this way or that."