"To sit home, read one's favorite paper,..." - Quote by Theodore Roosevelt
To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing.
More by Theodore Roosevelt
“It's not having been in the Dark House, but having left it that counts.”
“It's not the critic that counts.”
“Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the children in whose hands rests the future of the years.”
More on Action
“The failures of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the present and the future.”
“Words should be used as tools of communication and not as a substitute for action”
“It is the dissenter, the theorist, the aspirant, who is quitting this ancient domain to embark on seas of adventure, who engages our interest. Omitting then for the present all notice of the stationary class, we shall find that the movement party divides itself into two classes, the actors, and the students.”
More on Inaction
“Milk-livered man,That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerningThine honor from thy suffering; [that not know'stFools do those villains pity who are punishedEre they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,With plumed helm thy state begins to threat,Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still and cries'Alack, why does he so?']”
“Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behavior.”
“A tardiness in nature,Which often leaves the history unspoke,That it intends to do.”