"Are You Backing Up Your Beliefs with Action?"

[Arif Vakil]

"Are You Backing Up Your Beliefs with Action?

This week, think about the many people you've known who always seem to have the right-sounding words, but who generally fall short when it comes to backing up those words with deeds or concrete actions. Also think about how this phenomenon might have played itself out in your own life. To assist you in your reflections, here is this week's selection of quotations on the subject:

"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul."

—EDWARD ABBEY

"We have too many high sounding words,
and too few actions that correspond with them."

—ABIGAIL ADAMS

"Action is indeed the sole medium of expression for ethics."

—JANE ADDAMS

"Action is the language of the body
and should harmonize with the spirit within."

—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO

"Thought is the seed of action."

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

"In our era, the road to holiness
necessarily passes through the world of action."

—DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

"The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention."

—PATTI LABELLE

"I have always thought the actions of men
the best interpreters of their thoughts."

—JOHN LOCKE

"Every man feels instinctively
that all the beautiful sentiments in the world
weigh less than a single lovely action."

—JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

"From thinking proceeds speaking;
thence to acting is often but a single step.
But how irrevocable and tremendous!"

—GEORGE WASHINGTON