A Quote by William Wordsworth

Thought and theory must precede all action, that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

William Wordsworth

Quote Topics

Action Either Itself Moves Must Purposes Than Theory Thought

Quote Author

William Wordsworth
English - Poet
April 7, 1770 - April 23, 1850

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

Virginia Woolf

Thought precedes action, action does not always precede thought.

Douglas Horton

The deductive reasons for a course of action usually follow rather than precede the course of action. Thought follows life.

Vincent McNabb

It is not enough for theory to describe and analyze, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes. In order to do this theory must partake of and become the acceleration of this logic. It must tear itself from all referents and take pride only in the future. Theory must operate on time at the cost of a deliberate distortion of present reality.

Jean Baudrillard

Theory is worth but little, unless it can explain its own phenomena, and it must effect this without contradicting itself; therefore, the facts are sometimes assimilated to the theory, rather than the theory to the facts.

Charles Caleb Colton

..if the beginning of the thought or theory is not rooted in reality, the end or the final results of such a thought or theory could well be disastrous in practice.

Nirmala Srivastava

Managers are already voracious consumers of theory. Every time they make a decision or take action, it's based on some theory that leads them to believe that action will lead to the right result. The problem is, most managers aren't aware of the theories they're using, and they often use the wrong theories for the situation.

Clayton M. Christensen

The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.

Max Planck

The more evolutionary theory gets called an atheistic theory, the greater the risk that it will lose its place in public school biology courses in the United States. If the theory is thought of in this way, one should not be surprised if a judge at some point decides that teaching evolutionary theory violates the Constitutional principle of neutrality with respect to religion.

Elliott Sober

Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first. It rises in thought, to the end that it may be uttered and acted. Always in proportion to the depth of its sense does it knock importunately at the gates of the soul, to be spoken, to be done.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

Henri Frederic Amiel

It is a singular fact that most men of action incline to the theory of fatalism, while the greater part of men of thought believe in providence.

Honore de Balzac

The life of action is nobler than the life of thought.

Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

The people are led to find in the productive apparatus the effective agent of thought and action to which their personal thought and action can and must be surrendered. And in this transfer, the apparatus also assumes the role of a moral agent. Conscience is absolved by reification.

Herbert Marcuse

Thought is the creative power, or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act; thinking in a Certain Way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck–the failure to connect thought with personal action.