Lydia Davis Quotes

Be a doer, not a stewer.

The best way to start doing something is to start doing something.

Every day you don't do something, it makes it less likely that you will ever do something. So you've got to get started right away.

Experience has taught me that there is one chief reason why some people succeed and others fail. The difference is not one of knowing, but of doing. The successful man is not so superior in ability as in action. So far as success can be reduced to a formula, it consists of this: doing what you know you should do.

People have to decide on priorities if they want to get anywhere. The best lessons I learned was to just do it.

Stop rationalizing, stop stewing. Get up out of your chair and start doing.

Be a doer and not a critic.

I just want to say, 'Go work! It doesn't matter what it is. Work begets work. Just go!'

I'm a slow starter, but it's time to flip on the switch.

This is the question I want everyone to ask yourself every single day when you come up with something you feel that needs to be done: if not now, then when? And if not me, then who?

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.

Life just doesn't hand you things. You have to get out there and make things happen. that's the exciting part.

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

The world is full of people who say, 'But I had that idea first,' but did they do anything about it? Nope, they sat on their bum dreaming.

When you feel as though you can't do something, the simple antidote is action: Begin doing it. Start the process, even if it's just a simple step, and don't stop at the beginning.

If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street.

If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.

Sorry; I have no space left for advice. Just do it.

If you really want to do something, go and do it; don't just talk about it.

Once you let go of the idea of waiting for a magical lightning bolt of genius to hit, you can really get to work.

'Better do it than wish it done,' is a phrase ingrained in my mind.