"If action, however violent, evolves from character, there is no higher literary expression and the ultimate crystallization of character is likely to lie in physical rather than psychological action."
"It is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebræ which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies, do a thing—"carry a message to Garcia."
"The good one, after every action, closes His volume, and ascends with it to God. The other keeps his dreadful day-book open Till sunset, that we may repent; which doing, The record of the action fades away, And leaves a line of white across the page Now if my act be good, as I believe, It cannot be recalled. It is already Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished. The rest is yours."
"Action is transitory, a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle—this way or that."
"Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or glorious."
"How my achievements mock me! I will go meet them."
"Action is transitory—a step, a blow— The motion of a muscle—this way or that— Tis done; and in the after-vacancy We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed."