“He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.”
Unacted desire can turn stagnant; the line pushes toward action rather than indefinite wishing.
“Proverbs of Hell.”
“we have suffered our purposes to sleep till the time of action is past”
Johnson describes procrastination as allowing intended work to remain dormant until the opportunity to act has disappeared.
The Idler, No. 88; this clause comes from Johnson’s reflection on private ambitions that remain unfinished while days and years pass.
“Life is a search after power.”
Emerson treats living as an active search for capacity and agency, so growth involves finding and using the powers that let a person act effectively.
The Conduct of Life, essay II, “Power,” Project Gutenberg #39827. “Life is a search after power” appears at the opening of Emerson’s prose discussion after the verse epigraph and introduces his account of capacity, agency and human influence. It remains nineteenth-century Transcendentalist conduct-of-life philosophy rather than an empirical law of motivation or success.
“Here is my work, here or nowhere.”
Carlyle’s imagined capable leader locates responsibility in the actual sphere available to him rather than waiting for a more convenient setting in which to act.
Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. IV “The New Downing Street”; Project Gutenberg #1140. The sentence occurs inside Carlyle’s controversial political argument about leadership; this collection uses it for work/responsibility while retaining that historical context.
“Without life there can be no action”
The excerpt connects finite existence with agency: action, pursuit and intention require continued life, which helps explain why future time matters to an active person.
The Round Table, No. 1, “On the Love of Life,” January 15, 1815. The phrase occurs inside Hazlitt’s broader argument that passions and projects strengthen attachment to life.
“Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear.”
The maxim contrasts forward movement with hesitation, arguing that bold action can enlarge courage while delay can give fear more room to grow.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 63, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!”
Delay is personified as a thief because it quietly removes time that cannot later be recovered.
David Copperfield; Mr. Micawber’s advice.
