“If you want a quality, act as if you already have it. If you want to be courageous, act as if you were - and as you act and persevere in acting, so you tend to become.”
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Norman Vincent Peale 63
American writer 1898–1993Related quotes
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), XI : The Practical Problem
Context: And what is its moral proof? We may formulate it thus: Act so that in your own judgment and in the judgment of others you may merit eternity, act so that you may become irreplaceable, act so that you may not merit death. Or perhaps thus: Act as if you were to die tomorrow, but to die in order to survive and be eternalized. The end of morality is to give personal, human finality to the Universe; to discover the finality that belongs to it — if indeed it has any finality — and to discover it by acting.
“If you want to be enthusiastic,
act enthusiastic.”
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), p. 40 (in 2016 edition)
“If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.”
The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter II
Context: To worship to other than one's own ancestral spirits is brown-nosing. If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.
Variant To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.
2019, World Economic Forum (January 2019)
Source: Greta Thunberg, 16, urges leaders to act on climate, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate (25 January 2019)
Cited in ', Penguin Books, 2019, pages 19-24 (ISBN 9780141991740).
“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”
Variant: Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.