Do The Thing Quotes

Everything in life turns out to be a distraction from the real thing you want to do. There are a million distractions and when I was a kid I was very disciplined. I knew that the other kids weren't. I was the one able to do the thing, not because I had more talent, maybe less, but because they simply weren't applying themselves. ~ Woody Allen

When you don't know what to do, do the thing in front of you. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Do the thing itself. Don't pay much mind to critics or what anyone says about it. Just do it, in any form possible, and watch others doing it. Take it in viscerally, get it by osmosis. Don't ever read your own reviews, certainly not the good ones. ~ Holland Taylor

I'm a very lucky man. I get to do the thing I want most in life, write songs and sing them for people, and ride bikes. I love my family. I love my home. I get to work with people I've admired my whole life. It's a pretty good life. ~ Lyle Lovett

Nobody can be a real princess
do not imagine you have yet been anything more than a mock one
until she is a princess over herself, that is, until, when she finds herself unwilling to do the thing that is right, she makes herself do it. So long as any mood she is in makes her do the thing she will be sorry for when that mood is over, she is a slave, and not a princess. ~ George MacDonald

It often felt like God had merely let me into a foyer where I could hear others playing my note in another room, with no way to get to the music. And that's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to play my note. I wanted to do the thing that made me feel alive. ~ Susan E. Isaacs

The form of the poem, in other words, is crucial to poetry's power to do the thing which always is and always will be to poetry's credit: the power to persuade that vulnerable part of our consciousness of its rightness in spite of the evidence of wrongness all around it, the power to remind us that we are hunters and gatherers of values, that our very solitudes and distresses are creditable, in so far as they, too, are an earnest of our veritable human being. ~ Seamus Heaney

Only do the thing we are best at doing and enjoy most. ~ Richard Koch

Want the thing you've never had? Then do the thing you've never done. ~ Josh Linkner

The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do; and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot. ~ Mark Twain

It is a psychological law that whatever we desire to accomplish we must impress upon the subjective or subconscious mind; that is, we must register a vow with ourselves, we must make our resolution with vigor, with faith that we can do the thing we want to do; we must register our conviction with such intensity that the great creative forces within us will tend to realize them. Our impressions will become expressions just in proportion to the vigor with which we register our vows to accomplish our ambitions, to make our visions realities. ~ Orison S. Marden

The only way to overcome your fears is to do the thing you fear. ~ Brian Tracy

I'm unable to do the thing that Broadway actors do in plays, sometimes for years. The same exact blocking, the same exact lines. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that. Every night I'm looking for ways to try something else. ~ Mike Birbiglia

Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain. ~ Mark Twain

There's enough room for everyone to do the thing they're good at. ~ Zoe Sugg

It's the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Your sense of paralysis will be intensified if your family and friends are in the habit of pushing and cajoling you. Their nagging should statements reinforce the insulting thoughts already echoing through your head. Why is their pushy approach doomed to failure? It's a basic law of physics that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Any time you feel shoved, whether by someone's hand actually on your chest or by someone trying to boss you around, you will naturally tighten up and resist so as to maintain your equilibrium and balance. You will attempt to exert your self-control and preserve your dignity by refusing to do the thing that you are being pushed to do. The paradox is that you often end up hurting yourself. ~ David D. Burns

For the better part of an hour, I watched a young man throw a red rubber ball about fifty yards into the bay and his Labrador retriever swim out and get it. Over and over again, that dog swam with such joy and enthusiasm and purpose that I realized I was watching him do exactly what he was born to do, the thing that came most naturally to him. As I watched, I could see the beauty in that, the sheer joy of it, the fulfilled heart. ~ Michael Bowe

I think one must do the thing
whatever it is (and it changes from time to time)
that unites you to the flowing stream of the world. At any price, one must do it first. Otherwise one can do nothing, nothing at all. One is out of touch, out of grace. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

You must dare to do the thing you think cannot be done ... as this is the only way to discover that there's nothing you can't do. ~ Guy Finley

I never liked to work because I don't want no one to be a slave. I want to be worked in my mind. Every thing that's going on, there's some big spirit behind me who send me to do the thing that I must do. ~ Lee "Scratch" Perry

Shhh. Just listen. You, of all people. Listen to what Im saying. This ... tonight ... is the most wonderful thing you could have done for me. What you have told me, what you have done in bringing me here ... knowing that, somehow, from that complete arse, I was at the start of this, you managed to salvage something to love is astonishing to me. But ... I need it to end here. No more chair. No more pneumonia. No more burning limbs. No more pain and tiredness and waking up every morning already wishing it was over. When we get back, I am still going to go to Switzerland. And if you do love me, Clark, as you say you do, the thing that would make me happier than anything is if you would come with me. So I'm asking you - if you feel the things you say you feel - then do it. Be with me. Give me the end I'm hoping for. ~ Jojo Moyes

Do the thing and you will have the power. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

You just have to do the thing that you feel is true to your vision, and then the audience will make the decision. But as soon as you feel like you're creating a product to just cater to what you think they want, it never works. It always feels phony. And the audience can tell immediately. ~ Rob Zombie

Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action. ~ Stendhal

An artist, to achieve anything in art, has to finally do the thing that nobody else wants to do and nobody else has thought to do. ~ Carl Andre

When conservatives talk to one another, pay attention: they say what they want to do, and mean it. And will do just about anything to get there - even, or especially, claiming that they don't want to do the thing they want to do, until the time is ripe, and they can do it. ~ Rick Perlstein

Do the thing you long to do and become the person you're destined to be. ~ Karen McQuestion

You know the rule: If you are falling, dive. Do the thing that has to be done. ~ Joseph Campbell

Do the thing you fear, it's sure to disappear. ~ Susan Jeffers

You just have to hold it in your mind, and it's yours to take from. The sun's treasure. It's there in those moments when the world makes a rainbow. It's there in the moment of eclipse and the moment of the storm." And he showed Shadow how to do the thing. This time Shadow got it. ~ Neil Gaiman

1. Be honest. Don't complicate things.
2. Do what scares you the most.
3. Always do the thing that could get you arrested.
4. Don't be afraid of reality. ~ Shana Norris

Investing is a negative game emotionally. If you're playing for the emotional satisfaction, you're bound to lose, because what feels good is often the wrong thing to do. When all the criteria are in balance, do the thing you least want to do. ~ William Eckhardt

So I do the thing most reasonable people would in my situation. I run. ~ Rick Yancey

A woman cannot do the thing she ought, which means whatever perfect thing she can, in life, in art, in science, but she fears to let the perfect action take her part and rest there: she must prove what she can do before she does it,
prate of woman's rights, of woman's mission, woman's function, till the men (who are prating, too, on their side) cry, A woman's function plainly is ... to talk. Poor souls, they are very reasonably vexed! ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Literally falling on the ice and having to pick yourself up in front of thousands of people is not an easy thing to do. The thing that you learn is to pick yourself back up, to learn from your mistakes. ~ Michelle Kwan

And he showed Shadow how to do the thing. ~ Neil Gaiman

…Sometimes this constraint would be felt by the whole tribe, numbering some dozens of grown men and women. It sprang from the sense they had (and their senses are very sharp and much in advance of their vocabulary) that whatever they were doing crumbled like ashes in their hands. An old woman making a basket, a boy skinning a sheep, would be singing or crooning contentedly at their work, when Orlando would come into the camp, fling herself down by the fire and gaze into the flames. She need not even look at them, and yet they felt, here is someone who doubts; (we make a rough-and-ready translation from the gipsy language) here is someone who does not do the thing for the sake of doing; nor looks for looking's sake; here is someone who believes neither in sheep-skin nor basket; but sees (here they looked apprehensively about the tent) something else. Then a vague but most unpleasant feeling would begin to work in the boy and in the old woman. They broke their withys; they cut their fingers. A great rage filled them. They wished Orlando would leave the tent and never come near them again. ~ Virginia Woolf

Your belief that you can do the thing gives your thought forces their power. ~ Robert Collier

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. ~ Thomas Henry Huxley

The producer beating a new path for himself through the wilderness is going to do the thing 'differently,' of course. But after a while, he looks about him. The territory is unfamiliar, the forest ahead forbidding. Just how 'different' dare he be? He looks at his resources, and then at the established successes of the past. He suddenly realizes he must play safe, be sure. The unknown is a gamble; the known isn't-at least comparatively. The safest plan, obviously, is to follow the trailblazers. So he produces an imitation of one of the current successes. Usually it is a mediocre imitation. ~ Irving Thalberg

Dad simply would not settle for second best. He always insisted on several basic rules of personal behavior. "Anything worthwhile costs an effort," or "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well," or "Opportunities only come to those prepared to grasp them," or "Do the thing you fear and so overcome. ~ W. Phillip Keller

Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first rule of truly living - do the thing you are most afraid of. ~ L.J.Smith

There is a distinction between failing and being a failure. Few things are learned in life without failing at least once. Did you learn to roller skate without falling a few times? Did you learn to ride a bike without losing your balance? Chances are you didn't. You may have wanted to do those things so intensely that you quickly put unsuccessful attempts behind you and kept trying. Soon you acquired the skill to do the thing you wanted. Even though in the process of learning you may have failed many times, you were not a failure. "Failing" simply became an open door to try again. ~ John Templeton

Someone once asked Mother Teresa how she dealt with world poverty. Do you know what she said? 'You do the thing that's in front of you. ~ Corban Addison

Always do the thing that scares you! ~ Vernell Chapman

Try and remember what you said you'd do and why you said you'd do it.

Forget what you think other people want the thing you said you'd do to be.

The thing you said you'd do should only be what you want the thing you said you'd do to be.

If the thing you said you'd do makes other people happy, that's great but don't say things or do things just to make them happy.

Find new ways to do the thing you said you'd do that don't change the meaning of what you said you'd do.

Have the purest of intentions for what you said you'd do and do it bravely.

If the thing you said you'd do becomes successful, continue to act and think like it is unsuccessful, otherwise you'll spend your time worrying that it might become unsuccessful.

If you said you'd involve people in the thing you said you'd do, listen to them when they say what they think you should do.

If you said you'd do the thing you said you'd do alone, then go boldly into the wilderness and make your own soul be company enough, while you do the thing you said you'd do.

Do right by the thing you said you'd do. Tend to it and love it.

By trying to remember what you said you'd do and the reason why you said you'd do it. ~ Pleasefindthis

The habit of thinking of ourselves as sublime, or having a lofty conception of our possibilities, of imagining ourselves as being commanded by the Almighty to do a great work on this earth, of thinking of ourselves as not only human but divine, gods in the making, because we are a product of Divinity, will help us wonderfully to grasp the higher meaning of life and do the thing worth while. ~ Orison Swett Marden

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not. ~ Aldous Huxley

The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer - and yet also, like most things, so very simple - was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay. As I clung to the chaparral that day, attempting to patch up my bleeding finger, terrified by every sound that the bull was coming back, I considered my options. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go. ~ Cheryl Strayed

Let's just do the thing where we go and see whatever starts next. ~ John Green

When it comes to the thing you love to do, the thing you were made to do, aim high. The odds matter little. Whether you fall down along the way matters little. ~ John C. Maxwell

I'm just dying to return to the Octagon and do the thing I most love in my life. That's what I want right now. ~ Anderson Silva

It's into the same bag as E.T. and Yoda, wherein you're trying to create something that people will actually believe, but it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to do the thing itself. ~ Jim Henson

forge ahead. try harder. do the thing that is directly in front of you, and don't think beyond that. head down. ears pinned back. move in a direct line. ~ Duff McKagan

Sometimes you have to be reminded why you don't do things; and in order to be reminded you have to do the thing that you needed reminding not to do, then you remember why you didn't do it.
I am writing this in the hope that the next time I question why I don't do something I wont do it. ~ Laomeden

Contentment? Hmmmmmmmmm. That's a really deep one. It requires diving deep into the moment and bringing up that contentment which lies deep within us. You may want to put your life behind you so that it doesn't impede your way deeper. It's alright to do something really slowly if that's what it takes to do the thing you want to do. ~ Art Hochberg

If he knew, he'd never allow her to do the thing she needed to do most. ~ Jackie Castle

With habits, we don't make decisions, we don't use self-control, we just do the thing we want ourselves to do - or that we don't want to do. ~ Gretchen Rubin

Forget the American dream ... whats your dream? The thing that keeps you up at night ... the thing that makes you happy ... the thing that keeps your spirit going. Do that thing. Don't label it a hobby or what you do in your spare time type of thing ... label that thing you do the thing you love to do. The thing you were born to do. When you stop doing what you love you lose a huge part of yourself. Don't get lost. ~ Jill Telford

You don't need to know the odds. You need to know how to do the thing you're trying to do. And then you need to do it. ~ Ann Leckie

Question."
"Yes," Candace asked expectantly, eyes fixed on the dark street ahead.
"Have you ever had to chose sides between a friend and a boyfriend?"
Candace nodded.
"Which side are you suppose to pick?"
"The right one."
"What if they're both right?"
"They're not."
"But they are," Melody insisted. "That's the problem."
"No." Candace slowly rolled past a police cruiser. "They both think they're right. But who do you think is right? Which side represents the thing you think is worth fighting for?"
Melody glanced out the window as though she was expecting the answer to be revealed on a neighbor's lawn. Every house except hers had the lights turned off. "I dunno."
"You do," Candace insisted. "You just don't have the courage to be honest with yourself. Because then you'd have to do the thing you don't want to do, and you hate doing anything that's hard. Which is why you gave up singing and why you have no life and why you've always been a -"
"Um okay! Can we get back to the part where you were sounding like Oprah?"
"I'm just saying, Melly, what would you do if you weren't afraid? That's your answer. That's your side." She turned into the circular driveway and put the SUV in PARK. "And if you don't choose it, you're lying to yourself and everyone around you." She opened the door and grabbed her purse. "Oprah out!"
The door slammed behind her. ~ Lisi Harrison

We must do the thing we must Before the thing we may; We are unfit for any trust Till we can and do obey. ~ George MacDonald

I fear I have not one good word to say this fair morning, though the sun shines so encouragingly on the distant hills and gentle river and the trees are in their festive hues. I am not festive, though contented. When obliged to give myself to the prose of life, as I am on this occasion of being established in a new home I like to do the thing, wholly and quite, - to weave my web for the day solely from the grey yarn. ~ Margaret Fuller

The sky grows dark over the city as Janey tells me her story. Teh beast was supposed to help their community. Something that would look good in a brochure, I suppose. But instead, it cut loose, took out in to the Williamsburg night. Janey and the kids went after it , and when they finally caught up what does it do? The thing ate a hipster. ~ Daniel Jose Older

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend. ~ Jacques Derrida

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it ... that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear. ~ Dale Carnegie

I'm just happy that I'm able to take care of what I need to take care of, live, and do the thing that I love the most and that is to sing. People want to hear it, buy it, see it, hold it, record it, bootleg it. It's fine with me as long as it's good but when it's bad I'm in trouble! ~ Ledisi

After the second world war
in 1948
they founded the UN,
the United Nations
so that a crime like the mass-murder of
the Jews
could never happen again.
Now the UN is a flourishing organization
a honourable institution,
the only thing is that it doesn't do the thing they founded it for:
prevention of mass-murder. ~ Ad De Bont

Another five minutes, thought Olivia, and shut her eyes. Not to fall asleep again; but to go back as it were and do the thing gradually---detach oneself softly, float up serenely from the clinging delectable fringes. Oh, heavenly sleep! Why must one cast it from one, all unprepared, unwilling? Caught out again by Kate in the very act! You're not trying , you could wake up if you wanted to: that was their attitude. And regularly one began the day convicted of inferiority, of a sluggish voluptuous nature, seriously lacking in will-power. ~ Rosamond Lehmann

I never thought of achievement. I just did what came along for me to do - the thing that gave me the most pleasure. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Do you know what would be the height of stupidity?"
"What?"
"To not take every opportunity to do the thing that makes your soul the happiest, especially when someone's willing to pay you for it. ~ Meghan March

There was always something that you had to do before you could do the thing you wanted to do and even then you might get it wrong. ~ Terry Pratchett

When you are afraid, do the thing you are afraid of and soon you will lose your fear of it. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Do the thing. Kill the monster. Change the world. ~ Laini Taylor

Rules for making the world:
1. Stand up & do the thing you see needs doing.
2. That's it.
(If it was easy, we'd be having a different conversation.)
- Action Plan ~ Brian Andreas

It is a fool only, and not the philosopher, nor even the prudent man, that will live as if there were no God ... Were a man impressed as fully and strongly as he ought to be with the belief of a God, his moral life would be regulated by the force of belief; he would stand in awe of God and of himself, and would not do the thing that could not be concealed from either. ~ Thomas Paine

If you are going to do something truly innovative, you have to be someone who does not value social approval. You can't need social approval to go forward. Otherwise, how would you ever do the thing that you are doing? ~ Malcolm Gladwell

But, don't you know, there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight? Awkwardness and stupidity can. The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him. ~ Mark Twain

So I am happy with what I did. And I tell you something, when an artist does something, he doesn't have at the beginning, big goals and objectives, you do the thing because you love it. ~ Mahmoud Reda

Everyone should at least try to do the thing he wants to do. Later in life situations and responsibilities force people to compromise. But to compromise now ... it's like quitting before you start. ~ Jacqueline Susann

You can always make time to do the thing you want to do, if you want it enough. ~ Al Koran

How many people do you think get to do the thing they love for work? -Takano Masamune to Onodera Ritsu ~ Shungiku Nakamura

I have an acting coach that I work with on everything that I do. The thing about my preparation process for getting ready for a role is I have sex with as many people as I can. ~ Aubrey Plaza

Forget work-life balance...Do the thing you want and create systems to support that. Perfectly imbalanced in the direction you want to go is perfectly acceptable. ~ Richie Norton

Sometimes you do the thing you hate so others don't have to, whether it's from love, guilt, or blackmail. ~ Grace Draven

If you said you'd do the thing you said you'd do alone, then go boldly into the wilderness and may your own soul be company enough, while you do the thing you said you'd do. ~ Pleasefindthis

What is it?" I asked, pasting a magazine photo of a football--found in an old Seventeen magazine spread--on my beloved's collage.
"Well, a bunch of cattle trucks just showed up," he said, trying to talk over the symphonic mooing of cows all around him. "They were supposed to get here tomorrow night, but they showed up early…"
"Oh, no…that's a bummer," I said, not quite sure what he was getting at.
"So now I've got to work all these cattle tonight and get 'em shipped…and by the time I get done, the store in town will be closed," he began. Our appointment with Father Johnson was at ten the next morning. "So I think I'm just going to have to come over there really early tomorrow morning and do the thing at your house," Marlboro Man said. I could hardly hear him through the cattle.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "What time were you thinking of coming over?" I braced myself for the worst.
"I was thinking around six or so," he said. "That would give me plenty of time to get it done before we go."
Six? In the morning? Ugh, I thought. I have only one more week of sleeping in. After we're married, there's no telling what time I'll have to get out of bed.
"Okay," I said, my voice dripping with trepidation. "I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and hey…if I don't answer the door right away it probably means I'm doing some weight training or something."
"Gotcha," Marlboro Man answered, humoring me. "And hey--don't pull any muscles or strain yourself. We're g ~ Ree Drummond

Many a man has walked up to the opportunity for which he has long been preparing himself, looked it full in the face, and then begun to get cold feet ... when it comes to betting on yourself and your power to do the thing you know you must do or write yourself down a failure, you're a chicken-livered coward if you hesitate. ~ B.C. Forbes

If I love something I do it, and if I don't, I don't. I think that this is the most important choice that any of us can make in life, in art, in history: to do the thing you love. If you love it, it is important. If you love it then while you are doing it, you are a true expression of yourself and your time and your story. You are authentic. If you don't love it you betray not only yourself but also your history, your culture, your position in your society. ~ Lina Wertmuller

Do the thing you love to do. Hank Williams died at the ripe old age of twentynine. Stevie Ray Vaughan at thirty-five. Jesus at thirtythree. Don't think you're special and the Lord's gonna bless you with time. ~ Jill S. Alexander

Start doing the thing to have energy to do the thing ~ Bob Proctor

Get up and do things, even if you don't feel like it. Sometimes you don't feel like doing this, that or the other. Do the thing that you don't like to do first, and get rid of it. ~ Ida Keeling

Stop thinking ... Start doing. Think less ... Do more. Do the thing ... And you will know the way. ~ Hal Elrod

Doesn't make any difference how hard the thing is or how much you want to do something else. Do the thing you first started and do it as well as you possibly can. ~ Annie Roe Carr

The only way to the Place beyond Fear is to do the thing you fear most. This is how to surrender to your best destiny. ~ Martha Beck

You know, yeah, it seems to me like there are two kinds of chosen one. There's the kinda who gets chosen for a thing without any say, like someone who gets picked- kings and queens and shit. Then there's the other kind of chosen one; the guy who stands up when everyone else is afraid, when no one else can decide. Guy who chooses to fight, or do the thing that no one else will, 'cause it has to be done, yeah? I mean, most times, that guy's a total shit. And sometimes he's the hero. Seems to me that you're a bit of both. ~ Kate Griffin

I say, when your hair turns gray and your children think they know who you are, do the thing that shakes up who you think you are, even who you had prided yourself on being. When all those around you say they simply don't recognize you any longer, that's the real compliment. ~ Jane Smiley