Neither action nor style could have accomplished the result alone.Both were needed.

-Acheson, Dean Gooderham
  Of  Winston Churchill's charisma. Grapes from Thorns.

And my parents finally realize that I'm kidnapped and they snap into action immediately: they rent out my room.

-Allen,Woody pseudonym of  Allen Stewart Konigsberg
Quoted in Eric Lax Woody  Allen and His Comedy (1975).

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly everyaction and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

-Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, bk.1, ch.1,1093 (translated by Sir David Ross).

Tragedy isthus a representationof anactionthat isworth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude†by means of pityand fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

-Aristotle
c.330  BC  Poetics, ch.6.

The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists† When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
  The Dyer's Hand,'The Poet and the City'.

Doubt is a necessary precondition tomeaningful action. Fear is the great mover in the end.

-Barthelme, Donald
  Sadness,'The Rise of Capitalism'.

Certes, je sortirai quant a'   moi satisfait D'un monde o  u' l'action n'est pas la soeur du re"  ve. Indeed, for my part, I shall be happy to leave A world where action is not sister to the dream.

-Baudelaire, Charles
  Les Fleurs du mal,'Le Reniement de Saint-Pierre'.

We know very little about what it is that moves great masses of men to action, and until we know more about this it is fitting for the social scientist to maintain a becoming modesty in the presence of a great deal to be modest about.

-Boulding, Kenneth Ewart
  The Impact of the Social Sciences.

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

-Bronowski,Jacob
  The Ascent of Man, ch.3.

   Never under the most despotic of infidel Governments did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country. And what are your remedies? After months of inaction, and months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes forth the grand specificöthe never-failing nostrum of all state physicians from the days of Draco to the present time; death. Is there not blood enough upon your penal code that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?

-Rochdale
  Maiden speech, House of Lords, 27 Feb, against a proposal to introduce the death penalty for machine- wrecking.

How beautiful is all this visible world! How glorious in its action and itself! But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To sink or soar, with our mixed essence make A conflict of its elements, and breathe The breath of degradation and of pride.

-Rochdale
  Manfred, act1, sc.2.

For, strictly considered, what is all knowledge too but recorded experience, and a product of history; of which, therefore, reasoning and belief, no less than action and passion are essential materials?

-Carlyle,Thomas
  Critical and Miscellaneous Essays,'History'.

The end of man is an action and not a thought, though it were the noblest.

-Carlyle,Thomas
^4  Sartor Resartus, bk.2, ch.6.

Most true it is, as a wise man teaches us, that 'doubt of anysort cannot be removed except by Action.'Onwhich ground, too, let him who gropes painfully in darkness or in uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this other precept well to heart, which to me was of invaluable service: 'Do the Duty which lies nearest thee', which thou knowest to be a Duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

-Carlyle,Thomas
^4  Sartor Resartus, bk.2, ch.9.

Idonot likebeingmoved:for thewill isexcited;andaction Is a most dangerous thing: I tremble for something factitious, Some malpractice of heart and illegitimate process; We are so proneto thesethings with our terrible notions of duty.

-Clough, Arthur Hugh
  Amours de Voyage, canto 2, pt.11.

The people may be made to follow a course of action, but they may not be made to understand it.

-Confucius or K'ung Fu-tse,'The MasterK'ung'
c.479  BC  The Analects.

   Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.

-Connor, Sir William Neil pseudonym Cassandra
  Nostromo, pt.1, ch.6.

Experience is the child of Thought, and Thought is the child of Action.We cannot learn men from books.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
^7  Vivian Grey, bk.5, ch.1.

Justice is truth in action.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  Speech, House of Commons,11 Feb.

Youth, beauty, graceful action seldom fail: But common interest always will prevail: And pity never ceases to be shown To him, who makes the people's wrongs his own.

-Dryden,John
Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.723^6.