It was prettily devised of Aesop, ''The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise! ''
~ Francis Bacon

In this country men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.
~ Charles Francis Adams

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
~ Leo Aikman

The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
~ Noelie Alito

The greatest potential for control tends to exist at the point where action takes place.
~ Louis A. Allen

Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
~ Henri Frederic Amiel

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

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
~ Maya Angelou

Effective action is always unjust.
~ Jean Anouilh

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

Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet more apt for contemplation.
~ St. Thomas Aquinas

Action without a name, a ''who'' attached to it, is meaningless.
~ Hannah Arendt

What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations... is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one's own efforts.
~ Hannah Arendt

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

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
~ Aristotle

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

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
~ Aristotle

Well begun is half done.
~ Aristotle

The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.
~ Red Auerbach