Quotes about Inaction

Wise men do not desire to do anything; wise men do not desire to abandon action either.

There was never a consequence so great as the regret of inaction.

We're in a giant car heading toward a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.

When Kahlan first told me about the history of the three lands, she said the council had taken actions that had made the death of a wizard's wife and daughter at the hands of a quad stand for nothing, and as punishment the wizard did the worst thing possible to them: he left them to suffer the cosequences of their own actions.

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

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

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

Be a busy person. People who are active are often much more at peace with themselves than those who are inactive and inert.

Speaking of our unkind labeling of each other with, "she is divorced, she used to be inactive, etc", asked, "Can't we get over this hardening of the categories?".

Disciplined inaction.

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

Disciplined inaction.

One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body.

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.

But the idols of the Market Place are the most troublesome of all: idols which have crept into the understanding through their alliances with words and names. For men believe that their reason governs words. But words turn and twist the understanding. This it is that has rendered philosophy and the sciences inactive. Words are mostly cut to the common fashion and draw the distinctions which are most obvious to the common understanding. Whenever an understanding of greater acuteness or more diligent observation would alter those lines to suit the true distinctions of nature, words complain.

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything. The sage is quiet because he is not moved, not because he wills to be quiet. . . . Joy does all things without concern. For emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness, silence, and non-action are the root of all things.

From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.

You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of the work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction.