“Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.”

— Amelia Earhart

Chinese proverb, as quoted in The Homiletic Review, Vol. 90 (1925), p. 363
Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Amelia Earhart 19

American aviation pioneer and author 1897–1937

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“Go; say not in thy heart, And what then were it accomplished,
Were the wild impulse allayed, what were the use or the good!
Go, when the instinct is stilled, and when the deed is accomplished,
What thou bast done and shalt do, shall be declared to thee then.
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Nevertheless it is good, though there is better than it.”

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) English poet

Hope Evermore and Believe! http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/C/CloughArthurHugh/verse/poemsproseremains/hopeevermore.html, st. 2 (written 1853, published 1862).