Quotes about doing
page 15

“Governments exist on confidence. Not on liberty. Not on righteousness. Not on force. They exist because people believe that they do. Because they don’t ask questions.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 34 (p. 357)

Self-confidence, Confidence, People, Question

“I know this sounds crazy, but once I find something I want to do, nobody's stopping me. If I don't know how to sew, and I really had that passion to sew, that's it, I'm going to sew. That's also with acting. So here I am.”

Millie Bobby Brown (2004) British actress

Source: "How ‘Stranger Things’ Star Millie Bobby Brown Made Eleven ‘Iconic’ and Catapulted Into Pop Culture" https://variety.com/2017/tv/features/millie-bobby-brown-stranger-things-season-2-eleven-1202602487/. Variety. (October 31, 2017).

Passion

“[R]eciprocity is barter. I always understood that barter was the last effort of civilization that it was exactly that state of human exchange that separated civilization from savagery; and if reciprocity is only barter, I fear that would hardly help us out of our difficulty. ... [W]hen he taunts me with his quotation of some musty phrases of mine 40 years ago, I must remind him that we had elements then on which treaties of reciprocity could be negotiated. At that time, although the great changes of Sir Robert Peel had taken place, there were 168 articles in the tariff which were materials by which you could have negotiated, if that was a wise and desirable policy, commercial treaties of reciprocity. What is the number you now have in the tariff? Twenty-two. Those who talk of negotiating treaties of reciprocity...have they the materials for negotiating treaties of reciprocity? You have lost the opportunity. I do not want to enter into the argument at the present moment; but England cannot pursue that policy.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Speech in the House of Lords on the agricultural depression (29 April 1879), reported in The Times (30 April 1879), p. 8

Time, Help, Effort, Fear

“A real change towards a better environment can only begin with better design available for everyone, everywhere. Until the government realises this and provides adequate legislation and funding, we need to do this pro bono – free for the public good.”

Jiri Lev (1979)

Source: The Australian Architects Offering Pro-Bono Design Services to Bushfire Survivors https://hivelife.com/architects-assist/.

Change

“Relationships, like an exquisite garden do not thrive on granite. Find the valley where the bright foliage permeates the landscape; this is where you plant the flowers.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1982

Flowers

“The fiercest warriors, do not carry a sword to the battlefield; instead, they are armed with wisdom.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1980

Wisdom

“Chase the vision regardless of what other people do, say, or think.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

Thinking, People

“Successful people who wish to maintain their successes must make the decision to do so.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

Success, Making love, People, Decision

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should expect to find — this is a guess which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify — that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years, as a result of dictatorship.
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.”

George Orwell book Politics and the English Language

Politics and the English Language (1946)

Bad luck, People, Suffering, Knowledge

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

“Writing is just like making love - you can't do it whenever.”

Teodor Burnar

Love, Making love

“Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Imagination, Powerful

“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

Business

“Never deny a diagnosis, but do deny the negative verdict that may go with it.”

Norman Cousins (1915–1990) American journalist

“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.”

Rollo May (1909–1994) US psychiatrist

Idea

“Above all, do not forget your duty to love yourself.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Forgetting, Love

“It is with no doubt that there is trouble in every household, but I do not see the motive behind labelling each other as “narcissists” only after separation has occurred.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Motivation

“Do good deeds while you are still alive. Otherwise, there will be no VIP place for you in heaven.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“To my enemies I appear like a madman, to my admirers like a sage and to those who do not know me, I simply appear like a stranger in front of their senses.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Appearance, Sense

“With the right tools at hand, a woman is capable to do anything in life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life

“Without wisdom, you will not peacefully enjoy this wealth in the world. You will have no idea what to do with it in the first place.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

World, Idea, Wealth, Wisdom

“I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.”

Bertrand Russell book Why I Am Not a Christian

1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)

Religion

“You can do anything you put your mind to and just to follow your dreams.”

Mckenna Grace (2006) American child actress

McKenna Grace [citation needed]

Dreams

“My aim is to do the best. Doing my best is just a tool.”

- Goa

“I think dancers are paid not for what they do, but for the fear they feel. What you do is probably not that difficult: you just get on stage. It is, however, fear that gives you the push.”

Rudolf Nureyev (1938–1993) Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer

Source: Gervaso, Roberto. La mosca al naso, Rizzoli Editore (1980)

Thinking, Fear, Feeling

“You have nothing to trust to but your own energy and the sublime instinct of an ancient people. You must act as if everything depended on your individual efforts. The secret of success is constancy of purpose. Go to your homes, and teach there these truths, which will soon be imprinted on the conscience of the land. Make each man feel how much rests on his own exertions... Act in this spirit, and you will succeed. You will maintain your country in its present position. But you will do more than that, you will deliver to your posterity a land of liberty, of prosperity, of power, and of glory.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), pp. 534-535

Home, Dependency, Country, Effort

“You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo!”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Lose Yourself" (from 8 Mile, 2002)
2000s

Chance, Music

“I have lost a bit of my sight, much of my hearing. At conferences, I can't see the presentations and can't hear well. But I think more now than when I when I was twenty. The body can do whatever it likes. I am not the body: I am the mind.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist

Source: In an interview with Paolo Giordano, 100 anni di futuro, Wired, n. 1, marzo 2009. <br class="br">Source: Cited by Elisabetta Intini, Addio alla signora della scienza, le sue frasi più belle http://www.focus.it/scienza/addio-alla-signora-della-scienza-le-sue-frasi-piu-belle, Focus.it, 31 dicembre 2012. <br class="br">Source: Cited in Addio Rita Levi Montalcini, le frasi più belle di un genio gentile http://www.vanityfair.it/news/italia/12/12/30/rita-levi-montalcini-morta-frasi, VanityFair.it, 30 dicembre 2012.

Thinking

“Why do people who have no idea
what they are talking about
always
talking loudest?”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Idea, People

“Do not be abashed
by your
Failures.

Learn from them…
and Re-start!

In every Mistake,
there is a great potential for Growth.

You learn more from Failure
than
Success!”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Success, Failure, Learning

“Do not judge my story by the
chapter you walked in on.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“Do not compare your struggles to anyone else's.
Do not become discouraged by another's success.
Create your own path and do not ever give up!”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Success

“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow creatures happy.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

God, Happiness, Justice, Hope

“Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ!”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

Homily of His Holiness John Paul II for the Inauguration of his Pontificate, St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, on Sunday, 22 October 1978. Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20220324025630/https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19781022_inizio-pontificato.html from the original https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19781022_inizio-pontificato.html on March 24, 2022. <br class="br">Other Quotes by Pope John Paul II

Christ

“(Engr. Abah Sule favorite speech)1. Give birth to yourself. 2. Others are feeling the same. 3. As a man you got to be strong. 4. Love the one you are with, 5. Where challenges are important, 6. to live is the hardest, to die is the simplest. 7. Peace of mind, long life, 8. Can't be done without you. 9. Do what's real. 10. Live the world and live your life.”

Engr.Abah Sule

Strong, World, Birth, Peace

“Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it.”

T. Alan Armstrong

“You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Culture
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Variant: You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

A comment he made in persuading John Sculley to become Apple's CEO, as quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future (1987) by John Sculley and John A. Byrne
1980s

Life, World, Water, Change

“I think I did have a reputation for being grumpy. I don't think I'm grumpy. I have opinions. I have an independent vision. I am a purposeful person. But on a daily basis, I think I'm other than grumpy. I think it is a case where I am coming to do business and not there just to be flattered and cajoled and used.”

Harrison Ford (1942) American film actor and producer

Business, Thinking, Personality

“Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Will you love me in December as you do in May?”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Love

“There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy.”

Albert Ellis (1913–2007) American psychologist

World

“Our civilization has fallen out of touch with night. With lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea; the little villages, the crossroads even, will have none of it. Are modern folk, perhaps, afraid of night? Do they fear that vast serenity, the mystery of infinite space, the austerity of stars?”

Henry Beston book Northern Farm

Source: Northern Farm

Fear, Beauty, Star, Light

“The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Mood, Weather

“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Pain, Pleasure, Animals

“I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Variant: Do not get rid of your hurts until you have learned all that they have to teach you.
Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Thinking, Learning

“Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.”

Ted Chiang The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

Source: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

Life, Past

“Wait, do they even know I'm coming with you?"
"No. But they like surprises. Almost always.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Waiting

“You do have a story inside you; it lies articulate and waiting to be written — behind your silence and your suffering.”

Anne Rice book Pandora

Pandora (1998)

Silence, Suffering, Waiting

“I've said it before, and I'll say it again. When you find something at which you have talent, you do that thing (what ever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes pop out of your head.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“People cannot accept their own evil if they do not at the same time feel loved, respected and trusted.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Community And Growth

Love, People, Feeling, Evil

“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

Wise, People

“If you limit your actions in life to things that nobody can possibly find fault with, you will not do much!”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Life

“And as long as you are in any way ashamed before yourself, you do not yet belong with us.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Source: The Gay Science

Way

“I have always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Stupidity, Way

“But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Life

“The trouble with life was that you didn’t get a chance to practice before doing it for real.”

Terry Pratchett book Pyramids

Source: Pyramids

Life, Chance

“Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Macbeth

“And we could all sit around and wonder and feel bad about each other and blame a lot of people for what they did or didn’t do or what they didn’t know. I don’t know. I guess there would always be someone to blame.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

People, Feeling

“I do my best to please everybody, far more than they'd ever guess. I try to laugh it all off, because I don't want to let them see my trouble.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

Thinking

“She crouched with her hand out. What the hell was she doing…
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty."
Oh my God, she was retarded and I was going to kill Jim.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Curran

God, Hell

“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It's been that way all this year. It's been that way so many times. All of war is that way.”

Ernest Hemingway book For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)

War, Way, Time, Dependency

“I do not want to be admired. I want to give, to be given, and solitude in which to unfold my possessions.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Source: The Waves

Solitude

“Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”

Erich Maria Remarque book All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul to the corpse of a French man he has just killed, Ch. 9
Source: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
Context: I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony — Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

Death, Fear, Forgiveness

“You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Idea

“I definitely learned a lesson this time. I know that I can be broken. I am not as tough as I thought. I see it now. At this point, it's the only thing good that came out of all of this. I know myself better now and know what I have to do.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: The Portable Henry Rollins

Learning, Time

“Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!”

Arthur Miller book Death of a Salesman

Biff
Source: Death of a Salesman (1949)

Fools, Waiting

“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

Men, Evil

“I don't want to fall. All I want to do is stand on solid ground.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“One of those creatures wrote you once, ‘do not call up any that you can not put down’.”

H.P. Lovecraft book The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

often phrased as "Do not call up that which you cannot put down."
Fiction
Source: "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", written 1927, first published in Weird Tales, July 1941

“There isn't a way things should be. There's just what happens, and what we do.”

Terry Pratchett book A Hat Full of Sky

Source: A Hat Full of Sky

Way

“What's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Learning

“The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Books, Time

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Included in Portrait-Life of Lincoln (1910) by Francis T Miller
Posthumous attributions

Thinking, Wise

“Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Cooper Union speech (1860)
Context: Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Context: Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.

Faith, Understanding

“Do something instead of killing time. Because time is killing you.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Time

“Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.”

Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) English theologian

Soul, Spring, Affliction, Winter

“Every face, every shop, bedroom window, public-house, and dark square is a picture feverishly turned--in search of what? It is the same with books. What do we seek through millions of pages?”

Virginia Woolf book Jacob's Room

Source: Jacob's Room

Books, Search, Housing

“I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or
wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

Thinking, Waiting, Night

“Make ethical choices in what we buy, do, and watch. In a consumer-driven society our individual choices, used collectively for the good of animals and nature, can change the world faster than laws.”

Marc Bekoff (1945) American biologist

Source: Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect

World, Law, Nature, Change

“What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 2"
Source: The Golden Notebook (1962)
Context: It seems to me like this. It's not a terrible thing — I mean, it may be terrible, but it's not damaging, it's not poisoning, to do without something one really wants. It's not bad to say: My work is not what I really want, I'm capable of doing something bigger. Or I'm a person who needs love, and I'm doing without it. What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

Love

“Clocks and calendars do not exist to remind us of the Time we've forgotten but to regulate our relations with others and indeed all of society, and this is how we use them.”

Orhan Pamuk book The Museum of Innocence

Source: The Museum of Innocence

Time

“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

Du kannst Dich zurückhalten von den Leiden der Welt, das ist Dir freigestellt und entspricht Deiner Natur, aber vielleicht ist gerade dieses Zurückhalten das einzige Leid, das Du vermeiden könntest.
104
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

World, Nature, Suffering

“Question for God every morning:

What is the main event today? What do you want me to focus on today?”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

God, Question

“Good or bad, do it as you. Too many lies and there's no truth to go back to.”

Terry Pratchett book Monstrous Regiment

Source: Monstrous Regiment

Truth

“If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Variant: If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 50e

People, Intelligence

“When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God

“The American people are free to do exactly what they are told.”

Ward Churchill (1947) Political activist

People

“It is all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it’s no good at all if you don’t have a plan for tomorrow.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

“The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

“I can't do everything for you. You must walk alone to find your soul.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Variant: You must walk alone to find your soul.
Source: Speak

Soul

“I believe there is little you cannot do once you set your mind to it.”

P. C. Cast book Burned

Source: Burned

“I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

As quoted in How They Succeeded (1901) by Orison Swett Marden
Context: I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

Thinking, Success, Perseverance