Inaction Quotes

Fruitless striving breeds less despair than inaction.

— Mason Cooley

“Sometimes procrastination is an action, not inaction.”

— Jacquelyn Frank

“Who reflects too much will accomplish little.”

— Anonymous

“Inaction creates nothing. Action creates success.”

— Stephen Richards

Action always beats inaction.

— T. Harv Eker

“Too often contemplation is the excuse for inaction.”

— Craig D. Lounsbrough

Inaction may be safe, but it builds nothing.

— Dave Freudenthal

“Failure is not the opposite of success, inaction is.”

— Rob Liano

Stop making excuses for WHY you can't do it, and just do it.

— Sonya Parker

Drastic action can be costly, but it can be less expensive than continuing inaction.

— Richard Neustadt

Ignorance can be improved; willful ignorance and inaction is inexcusable.

— David Brock

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

— John F. Kennedy

Most of our problems are because we act without thinking or we keep thinking without acting.

— Jeromy Shingongo

Every action (or inaction) involves a choice between what is more important and what is less important.

— Brian Tracy

Inaction will cause a man to sink into the slough of despond and vanish without a trace.

— Farley Mowat

Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good to do no harm.

— Harriet Beecher Stowe

The universe may be tenderly indifferent to our fate, but we shouldn’t be. We are our brothers’ keepers. There is right, and…

— John Dufresne

Once we know and are aware, we are responsible for our action and our inaction. We can do something about it or…

— Jean-Paul Sartre

A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed…

— Alan Lightman

My father was a local radio celebrity in the Albany area while I was growing up. That was his dream when he…

— Jonathan Weeks

The politics of partisanship and the resulting inaction and excuses have paralyzed decision-making, primarily at the federal level, and the big issues…

— Michael Bloomberg

You cannot give up on the American dream. We cannot allow our fears and our disappointments to lead us into silence and…

— Marco Rubio

“Arjuna, you have control over your action alone, not the fruits of your action. So do not be drawn to expectation, or…

— Devdutt Pattanaik

While Americans have heard of Darfur and think we should be doing more there, they aren't actually angry at the president about…

— Nicholas D. Kristof

Justice is not available to all equally; it is something that many of us must struggle to achieve. As an elected official,…

— Hilda Solis

There is nothing more explosive than a skilled population condemned to inaction. Such a population is likely to become a hotbed of…

— Eric Hoffer

One of the greatest handicaps is to fear a mistake. You have stopped yourself. You have to move freely into the arena,…

— Federico Fellini

100,000,000 Guinea Pigs sparked a rising wave of consumer indignation. But...it takes a major catastrophe to carry legal and enforcement action over…

— John Grant Fuller

“We are the only species that understands the damage we cause to the Earth and the only one with the power to…

— Bhuwan Thapaliya

This is how they justify not wanting to strive for self-improvement. It's how they explain their continued inaction. It's just an excuse.…

— Valeria Lukyanova

Consolation has been wrongly reviled. Consolation is not apathy or inaction. It is not closing one's eyes to the evils of the…

— Vera Nazarian

“Friend: We are here. Already here. Within. A train approaches a wall at a fatal rate of speed. You hold a switch…

— George Saunders

[...] endless action and reaction. Those beautifully rounded pebbles which you gather on the sand and which you hold in your hand…

— Frederick Douglass

“I no longer follow the voices of the sane. I follow the ill because they see farther, feel much more and change…

— Shannon L. Alder

“We have to accept that any action we take might promote an equal and opposite reaction that we do not want. We…

— John Hunter

Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack…

— Alcibiades

Financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated. Long-run salvation by men of business has never been highly regarded if it means…

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“Never mistake the uncomfortable feeling of insecurity and the fear of the unknown with the Holy Ghost’s promptings. Sometimes those feelings are…

— Shannon L. Alder

And the fear of not being is born in that space. But in meditation, when this is understood, the mind can enter…

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

When the worms are scarce, what does a hen do? Does she stop scratching? She does not. She scratches all the harder.…

— B. C. Forbes