Active natures are rarely melancholy. Activity and melancholy are incompatible.—Bovee.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day.
* * * *
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act, in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
—Longfellow.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.—Lowell.
Prodigious actions may as well be done
By weaver's issue, as by prince's son.
—Dryden.
It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and true things, and vindicate himself under God's heaven as a God-made man, that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-drudge kindles into a hero.—Carlyle.
Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.—Colton.
When our souls shall leave this dwelling, the glory of one fair and virtuous action is above all the scutcheons on our tomb, or silken banners over us.—J. Shirley.
Our acts make or mar us,—we are the children of our own deeds.—Victor Hugo.