Photo credit: Melanie
40+ Taking Action quotes and sayings
For all the good and positive impacts that we can bring to the world, they will only come through from taking action; nothing happens until we take action. Follow that Nike’s slogan: Just do it! Take risk, take a chance, and take the first step today! 40+ Taking Action quotes and sayings to inspire you to take action and change your life.
1. Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.
– W.B. Yeats
2. The grass is greener where you water it.
– Neil Barringham
3. Everything is easier said than done. Wanting something is easy. Saying something is easy. The challenge and the reward are in the doing.
Don’t sit back and wait for life to happen to you. Dream, plan, execute!
Take action! An inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention.
4. Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
– Will Rogers
5. Some people act without thinking, but most of us think without acting.
– Steven Aitchison
6. The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
– Theodore Roosevelt
7. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.
Nothing happens until you take action.
8. 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
9. Make your own luck by taking action. Step by step, little by little, you’ll gain momentum and your luck will increase.
10. If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
11. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.
12. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
– Napoleon Hill
13. Don’t get lost. Give it a try. Go find the place that you’re wishing for.
– Natsuki Takaya
14. When you convert knowledge into wisdom you live it, otherwise you just preach.
– Swami Parthasarathy
15. Taking action is better than thinking and talking about it.
16. The miracle often lies outside our comfort zone.
17. You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
18. When you listen, it’s amazing what you can learn. When you act on what you’ve learned, it’s amazing what you can change.
– Audrey McLaughlin
19. You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.
20. The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.
– Vince Lombardi
21. There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.
22. You never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.
23. Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.
– Chris Grosser
24. Good things do not happen of their own accord, we have to make them happen.
We have to make an effort if we want a peaceful, more compassionate world.
You can’t help someone just by making a wish to do so, you have to take action.
25. I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes.
– C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
26. Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.
27. To the young and the not too old, I say, look at the horizon, follow that rainbow, go ride it.
– Lee Kuan Yew, Speech to the Singapore Press Club on Friday, 7 June 1996 at Raffles Hotel
28. Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until factors are favourable do nothing.
– William Feather
29. It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
30. Things don’t happen, they are made to happen. (University of North Dakota Address, 25 September 1963)
– John F. Kennedy
31. There is great power in starting. Dream big. Start Small. Begin now.
Less talk, more do. No one cares about your elegantly expressed intentions. Only your brilliantly executed results.
Nothing happens until you move. Nothing transforms until you execute.
It doesn’t matter where you start. Only that you begin. (Twitter, 6 Apr 2015)
No one cares what we say we’ll do – only what we get done. (Twitter, 24 May 2017)
Excuses don’t construct monuments. Action does. (Twitter, 7 August 2017)
Picasso didn’t wait until he was Picasso to produce like Picasso. (Twitter, 21 January 2019)
– Robin Sharma
32. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
– Lao Tzu
33. Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
34. All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
35. You’re never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready.
– Flora Rheta Schreiber
36. If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.
– J.M. Power
37. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.
38. It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There’s almost no such thing as ready. There’s only now. And you may as well do it now. I mean, I say that confidently as if I’m about to go bungee jumping or something – I’m not. I’m not a crazed risk taker. But I do think that, generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.
– Hugh Laurie
39. You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.
– Charles Buxton
40. One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.
Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.
To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life.
Take the first chance that you get because you may never get another one.
41. The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.
42. Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.
– Tennessee Williams
43. I’d rather look back on life and say ‘I can’t believe I did that’ than ‘I wish I’d did that.’
You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.
44. Practice isn’t something you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.
– Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, page 42)
45. On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day.
– Rumi
46. It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.
– Scott Belsky
47. You’re off to great places. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So … get on your way.
#48 The Ersatz Elevator
48. …if we wait until we’re ready we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives. Let’s go.
– Lemony Snicket
49. The only failure is not to try.
– Sister Madonna Bruder aka The Iron Nun
#50 Unwholly
, page 342
50. We’ll never be ready. So I guess that means we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.
– Neal Shusterman
51. Do not wait until conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.
52. Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
53. Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
54. Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it. (Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England, 1851)
– John Henry Newman
55. The world is blessed most by men who do things, not by those who merely talk about them.
– James Oliver
56. I believe great people do things before they are ready.
– Amy Poehler
57. The distance between your dreams and reality is called action.
– Author Unknown
58. The right moment is now. The world needs your unique contribution. (Twitter, 8 July 2017)
Don’t worry about getting it right, just get it started. (Twitter, 22 October 2017)
Your time on this planet matter. You matter. Whether it’s a big change or a little change, delay no more. Take that leap. (Twitter, 29 April 2018)
Starting small doesn’t mean thinking small. No matter how small of a step. Take it. (Twitter, 28 August 2018)
– Marie Forleo
59. Every now and then, there is the right time. All the time, there is now.
– Anthony Gucciardi
60. Balance your thoughts with action. — If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
61. Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
62. Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.
63. The most important thing is to go out and see the stars, not to see them in books.
– Edouard Boubat
64. It is not necessary to move mountains to move mountains. It is necessary only to move pebbles.
65. It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do.
#66 Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), Book III: Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.
66. Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.
– Ovid
67. Never map it out. Just get into it. Jump in, like going swimming.
68. Your dreams deserve ten minutes every morning. No excuses. Don’t tell me you don’t have the time. Don’t tell me you’re too busy. If you’re hitting the snooze button before you get up— you have the time… you’re just not making it a priority. Put down the phone and get to work. (Twitter, 8 January 2019)
– Mel Robbins
69. Don’t let your fears overwhelm your desire. Let the barriers you face — and there will be barriers — be external, not internal. Fortune does favor the bold, and I promise that you will never know what you’re capable of unless you try
– Sheryl Sandberg, Barnard College Commencement 2011
#70 Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
70. So please ask yourself: What would I do if I weren’t afraid? And then go do it.
– Sheryl Sandberg
71. Never give up on the things you want to come true. Take what you want to do and need to do… and reach for it.
– Douglas Pagels, Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!: Positive Words about All the Things that Matter Most
#72 The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to be Calm in a Busy World
72. If you want a friend to remember your birthday, remember hers first. If you want your husband to give you a massage, give him a massage first. If you want your children to watch less TV, turn off your TV first. Don’t just wait for what you want to happen. Act first.
– Haemin Sunim
#73 Thread
73. Don’t just hope to be successful.
Decide to be successful
and act with conviction. [S]
– Haemin Sunim
#74 Here at Dawn: Poetry and Prose
74. Child, I know you dream of flowers, but first you must plant the seeds.
– Beau Taplin
75. In the beginning I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of. So I decided to build it myself.
– Ferry Porsche
#76 The Wisdom of Insecurity, New York: Vintage Books, 1951 [S]
76. Struggle as we may, “fixing” will never make sense out of change. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
– Alan Watts
#77 The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
77. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.
– Timothy Ferriss
#78 Instagram
78. Don’t let the excuse of searching for a better way prevent you from taking action. [S]
You don’t need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started. [S]
People gravitate toward the standard you set, not the standard you request. [S]
– James Clear
#79 Press Conference in Singapore, 15 April 2015
79. If you have a dream, then you should just do it. Once you start, then things start to fall into place and it becomes easy.
– Sandy Robson, Kayaker
#80 Remarks by Elder Charles C. Rich, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, 7 April 1863, Journal of Discourses delivered by President Brigham Young, His Two Counsellors, The Twelve Apostles, and Others, Reported by G. D. Watts and J. V. Long, Volume X
80. Nothing that is required will be performed until we go to work and do something ourselves. We have no other people to lean upon, and, therefore, it remains for us to go to work and perform well our part.
– Charles C. Rich
#81 Godard on Godard: Critical writings by Jean-Luc Godard, Edited and Translated by Tom Milne [S]
81. For he who leaps into the void owes no explanation to those who watch.
– Jean-Luc Godard
#82 Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Edited by His Son, Charles Buxton
82. If you mean to be the effective man, you must set about it earnestly, and at once. No man ever yet ‘yawned it into being with a wish;’ you must make arrangements for it; you must watch it; you must notice when you fail, and you must keep some kind of journal of your failures. [S]
– Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton
#83 Notes of Thought, Edited by His Son, Charles Buxton
83. You never will find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. [S]
– Charles Buxton
#84 The Artist’s Way
84. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.
– Julia Cameron
#85 On Writing
85. The scariest moment is always just before you start.
After that, things can only get better.
– Stephen King
#86 X
86. You don’t have to build confidence before taking action. You build confidence by taking action. [S]
– Adam Grant
#87 Hidden Potential
87. If we wait until we feel ready to take on a new challenge, we might never pursue it all. There may not come a day when we wake up and suddenly feel prepared. We become prepared by taking the leap anyway.
When opportunity doesn’t knock, look for ways to build a door—or climb through a window.
– Adam Grant