When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of an orator, what
the second, and what the third? he answered, "Action." The same may I
say. If any should ask me what is the first, the second, the third part
of a Christian, I must answer, "Action."--_T. Brooks._
Our best conjectures, as to the true spring of actions, are very
uncertain; the actions themselves are all we must pretend to know from
history. That Caesar was murdered by twenty-four conspirators, I doubt
not; but I very much doubt whether their love of liberty was the sole
cause.--_Chesterfield._
Action is generally defective, and proves an abortion without previous
contemplation. Contemplation generates, action propagates.--_Owen
Feltham._
Remember you have not a sinew whose law of strength is not action; you
have not a faculty of body, mind, or soul, whose law of improvement is
not energy.--_E. B. Hall._
Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or
glorious.--_Colton._
Outward actions can never give a just estimate of us, since there are
many perfections of a man which are not capable of appearing in
actions.--_Addison._
Mark this well, ye proud men of action! Ye are, after all, nothing but
unconscious instruments of the men of thought.--_Heinrich Heine._
~Actors.~--Players, sir! I look upon them as no better than creatures set
upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like
dancing dogs. But, sir, you will allow that some players are better than
others? Yes, sir; as some dogs dance better than others.--_Johnson._
Each under his borrowed guise the actor belongs to himself. He has put
on a mask, beneath it his real face still exists; he has thrown himself
into a foreign individuality, which in some sense forms a shelter to the
integrity of his own character; he may indeed wear festive attire, but
his mourning is beneath it; he may smile, divert, act, his soul is still
his own; his inner life is undisturbed; no indiscreet question will lift
the veil, no coarse hand will burst open the gates of the
sanctuary.--_Countess de Gasparin._
Oh, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and
that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent
of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, or man, have so
strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen
had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so
abominably!--_Shakespeare._
An actor should take lessons from a painter and a sculptor. For an actor
to represent a Greek hero it is imperative he should have thoroughly
studied those antique statues which have lasted to our day, and mastered
the particular grace they exhibited in their postures, whether sitting,
standing, or walking. Nor should he make attitude his only study. He
should highly develop his mind by an assiduous study of the best
writers, ancient and modern, which will enable him not only to
understand his parts, but to communicate a nobler coloring to his
manners and mien.--_Goethe._
~Admiration.~--Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with
champagne; judgment and friendship like being enlivened.--_Johnson._