Inaction Quotes

Doing nothing was as honourable as any available course of action. Think of Hamlet, think of Job, think of Jesus before Pilate.

Those who claim to be on the side of good yet do nothing to fight evil are on the side of evil.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.

Well, there was a sort of bastard justice in his view of the case, and so I dropped the matter. When you can't cure a disaster by argument, what is the use to argue?

But the only way never to do the wrong thing is never to do anything.

Anything or everything can happen. You determine how good or bad they are

I hesitate in everything, often without knowing why. How often I've sought – as my own version of the straight line, seeing it in my mind as the ideal straight line – the longest distance between two points. I've never had a knack for the active life. I've always taken wrong steps that no one else takes; I've always had to make an effort to do what comes naturally to other people. I've always wanted to achieve what others have achieved almost without wanting it. Between me and life there were always sheets of frosted glass that I couldn't tell were there by sight or by touch; I didn't live that life or that dimension. I was the daydream of what I wanted to be, and my dreaming began in my will: my goals were always the first fiction of what I never was.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

Inaction only makes a task more daunting in your eye. Act quickly, before you overthink, get anxious or give up.

You are where you are right now because of the actions you've taken, or maybe, the inaction you've taken.

You may not have a clue of what lies ahead, but it’s better to act on life than simply let life act on you.

Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.

There was a certain wisdom in doing little, when one was obliged to act in ignorance.

We have to accept that any action we take might promote an equal and opposite reaction that we do not want. We have to realize that even the most noble actions or most obviously correct course can have its dark side that we cannot control or reason our way out of. The fighter of the "just war" must understand that her actions will result in the deaths of other humans; many of whom may be innocent. The pacifist who refuses all war must realize that his inaction might likewise result in the deaths of the innocent. There are no actions without contradiction—and yet we must act, for not to act is also a contradictory action with both positive and negative effects.