What does this quote mean?

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

Speed without judgment can undermine the very goal a person is pursuing, so patience becomes part of effective action.

Source note: Act 2, Scene 3; Friar Laurence urges Romeo to move with greater care.

“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.

Source note: 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.

“life is the end and aim of consumption.”

Consumption is judged by what it ultimately does for human life, making economic activity a means rather than an end in itself within Ruskin’s argument.

Source note: Unto This Last, fourth essay; Project Gutenberg #36541. The line follows Ruskin’s distinction between production and consumption and retains the nineteenth-century political-economy setting.

“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

The closing sequence turns purpose into continuing action: effort, search, discovery, and refusal to surrender.

Source note: Poem “Ulysses,” final line.

“Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.”

People who lack an achievement may understand its value more intensely because distance and deprivation make the desire clearer.

Source note: Opening line of Poem 112; Dickinson links desire with the sharpness of perceived value.

“First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose.”

Deliberate action begins by knowing why an act is being done instead of moving from impulse, distraction, or social pressure.

Source note: Meditations, Book XII, section 20, George Long translation.