Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/12

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4
ACTION.

Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity.

Lavater.

Look around you, and you will behold the universe full of active powers. Action is, so to speak, the genius of nature. By motion and exertion, the system of being is preserved in vigor. By its different parts always acting in subordination one to another, the perfection of the whole is carried on. The heavenly bodies perpetually revolve. Day and night incessantly repeat their appointed course. Continual operations are going on in the earth and in the waters. Nothing stands still. All is alive and stirring throughout the universe. In the midst of this animated and busy scene, is man alone to remain idle in his place? Belongs it to him to be the sole inactive and slothful being in the creation, when in so many various ways he might improve his own nature; might advance the glory of the God who made him; and contribute his part in the general good?

Blair.

Activity in the kingdom of God augments the power of spiritual life, and deepens the consciousness of religious realities.


The history of the Church of Christ from the days of the Apostles has been a history of spiritual movements.


It is much easier to settle a point than to act on it.


Unselfish and noble acts are the most radiant epochs in the biography of souls.