Action Vs Intention Quotes

Our actions are neither so good nor so evil as our impulses.

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.

It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear.

There is always a gap between intention and action.

I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the monkey patriotic.

If you wrote a page a day, at the end of the year you would have a book. Whether it's any good or not is beside the point, but you would have a book, instead of just talking about it all the time.

The worst men often give the best advice. Our deeds are sometimes better than our thoughts.

Many of her thoughts were perfect syllogisms; unluckily they always remained thoughts. Only a few were irrational assumptions; but, unfortunately, they were the ones which most frequently grew into deeds

Do you always do as you would like to do were it in your power? I find that circumstances force me often to act in a manner quite opposite to what I should prefer; I am, of course, judged by my acts, but do they really afford a true key to my character? I think not.