They wrongly believe that good intentions move mountains. Bulldozers move mountains. But there are exceptions.
Most people use two totally different sets of criteria for judging themselves versus others. We tend to judge others according to their actions. It's very cut-and-dried. However, we judge ourselves by our intentions. Even if we do the wrong thing, if we believe our motives were good, we let ourselves off the hook. And we are often willing to do that over and over before requiring ourselves to change.
She had reason to doubt him; he was real good at planning but real bad at doing.
You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish - not sit intending on a chair.
And I’m not spying! I’m evaluating!” “It’s the same difference!
The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.
What a writer wants to do is not what he does.
It is not what we read, but what we remember, that makes us learned. It is not what we intend, but what we do that makes us useful. It is not a few faint wishes, but a life long struggle, that makes us valiant.
I've been writing, but I haven't been writing. In my mind I've been saying I want to write, but I haven't actually physically picked up a pencil and started writing.
It's not our intention to be mean. That's just within us.
Listen carefully to me. Despite popular belief to the contrary, there is absolutely no power in intention...There is no difference in the person who intends to do things differently and the one who never thinks about it in the first place. Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by out intentions while we judge others by their actions? Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.
What we think we are surely going to do, we don't do; and what we never intended to do, we may one day notice that we have done, and done, and done.
The smallest of actions is always better than the noblest of intentions.
Anyone can see that intending and not acting when we can is not really intending, and loving and not doing good when we can is not really loving.
Purpose should determine approach. At the end of the day, it's what we do, not what we purposed to do, that defines our lives and reputations.
We have neither the strength nor the opportunity to accomplish all the good and all the evil which we design.
Wishing is not acting. But willing is acting.
Remember that deciding is not doing, and wanting is not choosing. Transformation will take place not because of what you decide you want, but because of what you choose to do.
In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish, love must be proved by deeds and not by reasons. What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.
