Thoughts of Action Quotes in English With Images

Action quotes in English serve as a potent source of motivation, inspiring individuals to take decisive and meaningful steps toward achieving their personal and professional aspirations. These succinct phrases are carefully crafted to encapsulate the essence of determination, resilience, and initiative. For instance, the iconic slogan “Just do it” transcends its commercial roots to become a universal rallying cry for those seeking to push past their limitations and embrace the challenges that come with pursuing their goals. Similarly, the profound wisdom in the statement “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” emphasizes the importance of taking that initial action, no matter how daunting the path ahead may seem.

Here’s a list of action quotes, each with a detailed meaning and example to illustrate its message:


1. "Action is the foundational key to all success." – Pablo Picasso

  • Meaning: Success isn’t achieved by merely dreaming or planning; it requires action. Ideas alone cannot create success unless acted upon.

  • Example: A person dreams of starting a business. They study entrepreneurship, read books, and brainstorm ideas, but unless they actually start executing and taking steps, the business remains a dream.


2. "You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." – Zig Ziglar

  • Meaning: Many people wait to be “ready” before starting something new, but greatness comes with consistent effort over time, starting from wherever you are.

  • Example: A beginner at writing might not be able to produce award-winning work at first, but with regular writing practice, they develop their skills and can eventually achieve greatness.


3. "The path to success is to take massive, determined action." – Tony Robbins

  • Meaning: Success requires more than just small steps; it needs consistent, strong actions driven by determination and purpose.

  • Example: To launch a new product, a business owner might take massive action by investing heavily in research, marketing, and networking rather than just introducing it quietly.


4. "An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied." – Arnold H. Glasow

  • Meaning: Ideas need action to transform into something meaningful. Without action, ideas remain unused and eventually fade.

  • Example: A writer has an idea for a novel but keeps putting off starting it. Without writing a first draft, that novel will only exist in their imagination.


5. "Well done is better than well said." – Benjamin Franklin

  • Meaning: Actions are more valuable than words. It’s easy to talk about intentions, but carrying them out proves your commitment and ability.

  • Example: Instead of repeatedly telling friends that he will volunteer, a person actually starts volunteering at a local shelter, which shows his commitment.


6. "The best way to get something done is to begin." – Unknown

  • Meaning: Getting started is often the hardest part, but it’s essential for progress. Once you begin, momentum builds.

  • Example: A student procrastinates on an assignment until they finally start working on it, and they find it’s not as hard as they imagined.


7. "Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned." – Peter Marshall

  • Meaning: Minor actions are more impactful than grand plans that are never executed. Action, even small, moves us forward.

  • Example: Instead of planning a huge fundraising event that’s difficult to organize, a group of friends starts by collecting donations among family and friends.


8. "Don’t wait. The time will never be just right." – Napoleon Hill

  • Meaning: Waiting for a “perfect time” often leads to missed opportunities, as conditions are rarely ideal. Start when you’re ready enough.

  • Example: An aspiring artist waits for the perfect art supplies to start painting. But by starting with basic supplies, they can start honing their craft sooner.


9. "Actions speak louder than words." – Traditional Proverb

  • Meaning: People judge others by what they do rather than what they say. Actions reveal true intentions and capabilities.

  • Example: A team member might promise to work hard, but only by showing up on time, completing tasks, and helping others can they truly demonstrate dedication.


10. "Take action, an inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention." – Steve Maraboli

  • Meaning: Even small steps are better than big intentions without action. Progress depends on moving forward, even if slowly.

  • Example: A person who wants to get fit might plan on going to the gym for an intense workout. Instead, they start with a daily 10-minute walk, which helps them build a routine.


11. "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage." – Dale Carnegie

  • Meaning: Taking action, even if uncertain, creates confidence and helps overcome fear. Inaction, by contrast, often leads to self-doubt.

  • Example: A person afraid of public speaking decides to volunteer for a small speech. Each time they speak, they grow more confident.


12. "You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." – Wayne Gretzky

  • Meaning: If you don’t try, you have zero chance of succeeding. Taking a chance is always better than avoiding it altogether.

  • Example: Someone wants to apply for their dream job but hesitates because they feel unqualified. By applying anyway, they give themselves a chance to be considered.


Each of these quotes underlines the importance of action over planning or hesitation, emphasizing that success, growth, and courage come through doing rather than waiting or talking.

These action quotes resonate deeply across a multitude of contexts, ranging from the realms of personal development to sports and business. In personal development, they serve as reminders to individuals struggling with self-doubt, encouraging them to cast aside procrastination and face their fears head-on. In sports, they motivate athletes to push through physical and mental barriers, highlighting the importance of perseverance and grit in achieving greatness. In the business world, such quotes inspire leaders and teams to tackle obstacles with confidence and creativity, driving innovation and success in competitive environments.

By distilling complex emotions and experiences into concise statements, action quotes ignite passion and fuel the drive for achievement. They remind us that success is not merely a product of talent or opportunity but often hinges on the willingness to take action, even in the face of adversity. These inspirational words create a sense of urgency, urging individuals to seize the moment and take control of their destinies. Ultimately, action quotes serve as powerful affirmations that propel us forward on our journeys, reinforcing the belief that progress begins with a single, courageous step.

Thought of the day Action

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

- Al Batt Thought

Let every man or woman here remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and with what you are. He who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.

- Russel H. Conwell

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.

- Nolan Bushnell

Often we are caught in a mental trap of seeing enormously successful people and thinking they are where they are because they have some special gift. Yet a closer look shows that the greatest gift that extraordinarily successful people have over the average person is their ability to get themselves to take action.

- Anthony Robbins

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

- Confucius

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

- Napolean Bonaparte

Action hangs, as it were, dissolved in speech, in thoughts whereof speech is the shadow; and precipitates itself therefrom. The kind of speech in a man betokens the kind of action you will get from him.

- Thomas Carlyle

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

- James Baldwin

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way. We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

- Aristotle

Preach! Write! Act! Do any thing, save to lie down and die!

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

- Russell C. Taylor

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed.

- John Anster

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.

- Henry David Thoreau

Action Quotes List

Noble deeds that are concealed are the most esteemed.

- Pascal

Noble deeds that are concealed are the most esteemed.

- Pascal

Action makes more fortunes than caution. 

- Vauvenargues

Action makes more fortunes than caution.

- Vauvenargues Quotation

Well done is better than well said.

- Benjamin Franklin

Well done is better than well said.

- A Quotation From Benjamin Franklin

Sometimes the man of action is a fellow who just got both his feet in hot water.

- O.A. Battista

Sometimes the man of action is a fellow who just got both his feet in hot water.

- O.A. Battista

The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.

- T. H. Huxley

The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.

- Action Quotes in English by T. H. Huxley

We learn by doing what we have to learn to do.

- Aristotle

We learn by doing what we have to learn to do.

- Aristotle

If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.

- Mario Andretti

Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

- Henri L. Bergson

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Aristotle

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Action may not always bring happiness ... but there is no happiness without action.

- Benjamin Disraeli

A good action is never lost; it is a treasure laid up and guarded for the doer's need.

- Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Nature takes away any faculty that is not used.

- William R. Inge

You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.

- Abraham Maslow

Let your performance do the thinking.

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.

- Alexis Carrel

People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.

- Lewis Cass

Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

- Warren Buffett

Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

- David Lloyd George

Do the thing you are afraid to do and the death of fear is certain.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first step binds one to the second.

- French Proverb

Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission.

- Zig Ziglar

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

- Joe Sabah

All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them but confront them.

- William F. Halsey

Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.

- Baltasar Gracian

God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails.

- St. Augustine

The superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.

- Confucius

Action is the antidote to despair.

- Joan Baez

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

- Harold Nicolson

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.

- Alfred Adler

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.

- Wayne Dyer

Well begun is half done.

- Aristotle

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

- Winston Churchill

Always do more than is required of you.

- George S. Patton

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

- Sally Berger

Never confuse motion with action.

- Benjamin Franklin

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

- Al Batt *

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

- Napolean Bonaparte

Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.

- Oscar Wilde

Actions lie louder than words.

- Carolyn Wells

Actions lie louder than words.

- Action Quotes by Carolyn Wells Download or Share

Words without actions are assassins of idealism.

- Herbert Hoover Quote

Words without actions are assassins of idealism.

- Herbert Hoover Download or Share

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

- Actions Quotes by Aristotle

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

- Actions Quotes by Aristotle Download or Share Images

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

- Confucius Quotes

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

- Confucius Download or Share

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

- Dorothy Day Quotes

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

- Dorothy Day Download or Share

Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it a charm.

- Jean Paul Richter Download or Share

Nothing happens untill something moves.

- Albert Einstein Download or Share

Experience is the child of thought and thought is the child of action. We cannot learn anything from books alone.

- Action Quote by Disraeli Download or Share

You ask me why I do not write something… I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.

- Florence Nightingale Quotes Download or Share

You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.

-  Demosthenes Quotes Download or Share

Deeds, not words, shall speak to me.

John Fletcher Download or Share

To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure an opportunity to do it is the key to happiness.

- Action Quotes by John Dewey Download or Share

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

- William Hazlitt Download or Share

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

- Confucius Download or Share

We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

- Abigail Adams Download or Share

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.  The more experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Download or Share

Strong reasons make strong actions.

- William Shakespeare Download or Share

I've arrived at this outermost edge of my life by my own actions.  Where I am is thoroughly unacceptable.  Therefore, I must stop doing what I've been doing.

Alice Koller Download or Share

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire.

Aristotle Download or Share

Price action is still (Pushing the U.S. dollar lower against Canada) given the price of commodities and energy, which are both supportive of the Canadian dollar going forward.

- Jack Spitz Download or Share

The doer alone learneth.

- Nietzsche Download or Share

Think in the morning, act in the noon, eat in the evening, sleep in the night.

William Blake Download or Share

What makes a river so restful to people is that it does not have any doubt – it sure to get where it is going and it does not want to go anywhere else.

- Hale Boyle

Our main business in not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

- Carlyle

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Action Quotation in English

Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more.

- Robert Collier

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

- Jacob Bronowski

In nature there are neither rewards not punishments – there are only consequences.

- R.G. Ingersoll

Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.

- Jack Canfield

Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.

- Thomas Huxley

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

- John F. Kennedy

Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

- Thomas Carlyle

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

- Thomas Carlyle

We do not need, and indeed never will have, all the answers before we act ... It is often through taking action that we can discover some of them.

- Charlotte Bunch

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs.

- Vance Havner

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.

- Peter Marshall

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.

- Andrew Carnegie

Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action.

- Brendan Francis

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been'.

- John Greenleaf Whittier

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

- Dale Carnegie

You cannot score a goal when you are sitting on the bench. To do so, you have to dress up and enter the game.

- Israelmore Ayivor

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

- Henri Frederic Amiel

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.

- Booker T. Washington