Quotes about Behavior

We cannot behave on the spot as he did and taught if in the rest of our time we live as everybody else does. The on the spot episodes are not the place where we can, even by the grace of God, redirect unchristlike but ingrained tendencies of action toward sudden Christlikeness. Our efforts to take control at that moment will fail so uniformly and ingloriously that the whole project of following Christ will appear ridiculous to the watching world.

They do not know what they are doing and do not have the ability to distance themselves from it so they can see it for what it is. That is the power of "culture.

Consider a daily newspaper or television newscast and eliminate from it every report that presupposes a breaking of one of the Ten Commandments. Very little will be left.

We cannot behave "on the spot" as he did and taught if in the rest of our time we live as everybody else does.

Remember, to believe something is to act as if it is so. To believe that two plus two equals four is to behave accordingly when trying to find out how many dollars or apples are in the house. The advantage of believing it is not that we can pass tests in arithmetic; it is that we can deal much more successfully with reality. Just try dealing with it as if two plus two equaled six.

Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak.

Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience.

We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.

We may say we value this thing or that thing more than any other, but the volume of our actions speaks louder than our words.

Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions — what we do — that we are happy or the reverse.

Our actions determine our dispositions.

Our beliefs are not just estimates of probabilities. They are also the instruments that guide our actions.