Acts Quotes - 3
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Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.
— 1844 Coningsby, bk.4, ch.13.
There's a direct correlation, we've found, between the demonization of Saddam, and violent acts against Arab-Americans in this country.
james abourezk— The Arabs: Who they are, who they are not, from the Moyers collection
The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
cato the elder— Apothegms (no. 247)
It astonished me that Gudrun, who has always thought in a very rational, intelligent way, has experienced what is almost a condition of euphoric self-realization, a really holy self-realization... To me, that is more of a shock than the fire of the arson itself—seeing a human being make her way to self-realization through such acts.
gudrun ensslin— Helmut Ensslin, Gudrun's father, in Stefan Aust, Terrorism in Germany: The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
In Randori we teach the pupil to act on the fundamental principles of Judo, no matter how physically inferior his opponent may seem to him, and even if by sheer strength he can easily overcome him; because if he acts contrary to principle his opponent will never be convinced of defeat, no matter what brute strength he may have used.
jigoro kano— "Judo: The Japanese Art of Self Defense", as translated in A Complete Guide to Judo : It's Story and Practice (1958) by Robert W. Smith
The impact of the human tragedies I've reported on is that, more often than not, I'll be angry. I want to know why is this child dying? These are not acts of God; they're results of respectable politicians' decisions.
john pilger— John Pilger, This much i know, The Observer, 13 November 2005
A standard of living is of the nature of habit. ...it acts almost solely to prevent recession from a scale of conspicuous expenditure that has once become habitual.
thorstein veblen— p.106 (The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899))
So our lives In acts exemplarie, not only winne Ourselves good Names, but doth to others give Matter for virtuous Deedes, by which wee live.
George Chapman— George Chapman, Bussy d'Ambois, Act I, scene 1.
Wouldst thou be famed? have those high acts in view, Brave men would act though scandal would ensue.
Edward Young— Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire VII, line 175.
Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity; to all appearances the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.
marcel duchamp— 'The Creative Act', 1957, Duchamp’s lecture in Houston, April 1957, in Art News, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
The oppressive weight of disaster and tragedy in our lives does not arise from a high percentage of evil among the summed total of all acts, but from the extraordinary power of exceedingly rare incidents of depravity to inflict catastrophic damage, especially in our technological age when airplanes can become powerful bombs. (An even more evil man, armed only with a longbow, could not have wreaked such havoc at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.)
stephen jay gould— "The Good People of Halifax", p. 390 (originally appeared in The Globe and Mail, 2001-09-20)
Not a little of our condemnation of the acts of others is spillage from our own condemnation of our own acts.
henry s. haskins— p. 110 (Meditations in Wall Street (1940))
What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.
william james— "The Dilemma of Determinism" (1884)
If we continue to pardon or excuse the wrongdoers who commit acts of criminality in unsettling an elected government, we don't have any guarantee, do we, that this kind of exercise won't be repeated in the future.
graeme leung— 14 June 2005 letter to Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase
Art thy not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it? Just as if the eye demanded recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking. For as these members are formed for a particular purpose... so also is man formed by nature to acts of benevolence.
marcus aurelius— IX, 42. (Book IX)
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last. The acts of a nation may be triumphant by its good fortune; and its words mighty by the genius of a few of its children: but its art, only by the general gifts and common sympathies of the race.
john ruskin— St. Mark's rest; the history of Venice. (1877).
Human nature, human nature acts as it acts when it is identified when there is an identity but it is not human nature that has anything to do with that it is that anybody is there where they are, it is that that has to do with identity, with government and propaganda with history with individualism and with communism but it has nothing nothing to do with the human mind ... because the human mind writes what there is and what has identity go to do with that ... nothing at all.
Gertrude Stein— Quoted in Really Reading Gertrude Stein : A Selected Anthology with essays (1989) by Judy Grahn (Crossing Press ISBN 0-895-94380-8), p. 253
Those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions.
john milton— John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 600.
Christ does not save us by acting a parable of divine love; he acts the parable of divine love by saving us. That is the Christian faith.
— Austin Farrer, in aith and Logic: Oxford Essays in Philosophical Theology, p.99
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
— Lao Tzu, Ancient China on Postmodern War: Enduring Ideas from the Chinese Strategic ..., p.204
Children who willingly participate in sexual acts have the right to make that decision as well, even if it's distasteful to us personally. Some children will make poor choices just as some adults do in smoking and drinking to excess; this is part of life. When we outlaw child pornography, the prices paid for child performers rise, increasing the incentives for parents to use children against their will.
— Mary Ruwart. Short answers to the tough questions, ISBN 978-0963233653, 1998. As quoted at Can the Libertarians Go Mainstream?
All acts suppose certain dispositions, and habits of mind and heart, which may be in themselves states of enjoyment or of wretchedness, and which must be fruitful in other consequences besides those particular acts.
john stuart mill— John Stuart Mill, Remarks on Bentham's Philosophy (1833).
"Familiar acts are beautiful through love."
— Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Prometheus Unbound" in The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839) p. 123.
Give a child the habit of sacredly regarding the truth of carefully respecting the property of others of scrupulously abstaining from all acts of improvidence which can involve him in distress, and he will just as likely think of rushing into the element in which he cannot breathe, as of lying or cheating or stealing.
— Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux]], p. 295.
Unless you perfectly understand the principle from which anyone acts, how should you know if he acts ill?
— Epictetus, Enchiridion, 45
All this care for the world, we must believe, is taken by the Gods without any act of will or labor. As bodies which possess some power produce their effects by merely existing: e.g. the sun gives light and heat by merely existing; so, and far more so, the providence of the Gods acts without effort to itself and for the good of the objects of its forethought. This solves the problems of the Epicureans , who argue that what is divine neither has trouble itself nor gives trouble to others.
— IX. On Providence, Fate, and Fortune. (On the Gods and the Cosmos)
The person who teaches one chapter of guidance to the people will have a reward similar to all those who would act upon it, and nothing would be lessened or subtracted from the reward of those who practise it; and the one who teaches a chapter of misguidance, he will have the burden similar to each one who acts upon it, and nothing will be lessened from their burden of sin.
— Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p.297
A King, by disallowing acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.
patrick henry— Speech on the Parson's Cause, in the Hanover County Courthouse (1763)
I have never heard any thing about the resolutions of the disciples, but a great deal about the acts of the Apostles.
— Horace Mann, p. 3. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
All acts of Parliament are to be expounded according to the true meaning to be collected from the words of 'em.
— North, C.J., Carter v. Crawley (1681), Sir Thos. Raym. Rep. 500.
